-john
In 1939, Semyon Kirlian, a Russian, discovered by
accident that if an object on a photographic plate is
subjected to a high-voltage electric field, an image is
created on the plate. The image looks like a colored halo
or corona discharge. This image is said to be a physical manifestation of
the spiritual aura or "life force" which allegedly surrounds each living
thing.
Allegedly, this special method of "photographing" objects is a gateway
to the paranormal world of auras. Actually, what is recorded is due to
quite natural phenomena such as pressure, electrical grounding,
humidity and temperature. Changes in moisture (which may reflect
changes in emotions), barometric pressure, and voltage, among other
things, will produce different 'auras'.
Living things (like the commonly photographed
fingers) are moist. When the electricity enters the
living object, it produces an area of gas ionization
around the photographed object, assuming moisture
is present on the object. This moisture is transferred
from the subject to the emulsion surface of the
photographic film and causes an alternation of the
electric charge pattern on the film. If a photograph is
taken in a vacuum, where no ionized gas is present,
no Kirlian image appears. If the Kirlian image were
due to some paranormal fundamental living energy
field, it should not disappear in a simple vacuum.
[Hines]
There have even been claims of Kirlian photography being able to
capture "phantom limbs", e.g., when a leaf is placed on the plate and
then torn in half and "photographed", the whole leaf shows up in the
picture. This is not due to paranormal forces, however, but to residues
left from the initial impression made by the whole leaf or to fraud.
Parapsychologist Thelma Moss popularized Kirlian
photography as diagnostic medical tool with her
books The Body Electric (1979) and The
Probability of the Impossible (1983). She was
convinced that the Kirlian process was an open door
to the "bioenergy" of the astral body. Moss came to UCLA in mid-life
and earned a doctorate in psychology. She experimented with and
praised the effects of LSD and was in and out of therapy for a variety
of psychological problems, but managed to overcome her personal
travails and become a professor at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute.
Her studies focused on paranormal topics, such as auras, levitation and
ghosts. One of her favorite subjects at UCLA was Uri Geller, whom
she "photographed" several times. She even made several trips to the
Soviet Union to consult with her paranormal colleagues. Moss died in
1997 at the age of 78.
Moss paved the way for other parapsychologists to speculate that
Kirlian "photography" was parapsychology's Rosetta stone. They
would now be able to understand such things as acupuncture, chi,
orgone energy, telepathy, etc., as well as diagnose and cure whatever
ails us. For example, Bio-Electrography claims to be
...a method of investigation for biological objects,
based on the interpretation of the corona-discharge
image obtained during exposure to a high-frequency,
high-voltage electromagnetic field which is recorded
either on photopaper or by modern video recording
equipment. Its main use is as a fast, inexpensive and
relatively non-invasive means for the diagnostic
evaluation of physiological and psychological states.
The reliability of diagnosing illnesses by photographing auras is not very
high, however. Bio-Electrography should not be confused with
Esogetic Colorpuncture, Peter Mandel's therapy, which unites
acupuncture and Kirlian photography.
None of these Kirlian methods of diagnosis should be confused with
other types of medical photography, e.g., roentgen-ray computed
tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, single photon/positron
emission computed tomography and other useful types of medical
imaging, none of which have anything to do with auras.