You might want to check out this ebook on the eight trigrams Dreamer.
http://www.avaxhome.ws/ebooks/martial_arts/1848190654.htmlI know what you mean by smelling energy. Sometimes you sense an energy signature in a way that seems similar to taste or smell. But how we sense energy doesn't matter as much as that we do sense it and that we have a system to associate a particular sensation with a particular condition. For instance when I feel a cool or cold spot in someone's energy I associate it with an old emotional trauma. But some of the others I know describe old traumas as being a sense of tension or tingling or some other description, but it is something that doesn't quite belong. It is an irregularity to what is normal.
I have seen people's auras very clearly at times but it isn't something that I can do at will. It has always occurred while I was doing therapeutic treatment. When I'm treating clients I often drift from one level of consciousness to another, particularly while I'm doing craniosacral therapy. When I've seen the aura in a altered state of consciousness it looks like a neon light in different colours with a dominant colour overall. It's very cool looking but if you can't tap into this on command it isn't very useful professionally. Generally the best I can do is something like fatherjhon, seeing a shadowy outline with perhaps a single dominant colour.