Kirlian Photography for the Layman
It’s the 21st century, and we are increasingly exposed to science fiction and New Age concepts. Concepts like these are quite commonly seen in TV, books, magazines, and the internet.
A concept that falls in both science fiction and New Age categories is the supernatural aura, or energy fields that are emitted by living creatures. Probably, you’ve encountered the term “aura photography” or seen a feature about it on TV, where the resulting picture depicts different colored halos around the photograph’s subject. Its purpose is to make a person’s aura be visible. It is claimed that different colors of a person’s aura reflect their health and emotions. It is also said that identifying the meanings of the different aura colors will help in diagnosing and curing a person who is sick.
Associated to the concept of supernatural aura is Kirlian photography. What is Kirlian photography? It is accidentally discovered by Semyon Kirlian, a Russian inventor and electrician in 1939. He found that if you put something on a photographic plate (one of the earliest forms of photographic film), and you connect the photographic plate to a high voltage source, a strong electric field will be visible around the image of the object on the photographic plate.
Semyon Kirlian made controversial claims on capturing the aura of living objects through his method, but it has been disputed time and again. Even his experiment on leaves, or what is called “The Leaf Phenomenon” (where Kirlian cuts a leaf and the resulting image from Kirlian photography shows a whole leaf without the cuts, and still showing the leaf’s energy field) was disputed. The line of reasoning against “The Leaf Phenomenon” is that if Kirlian photography truly captured the energy field of living organisms, then it should disappear when the organism dies. Scientists say that the energy field was made by the reaction of the object’s moisture and the high voltage charge, because not only living creatures’ “auras” are captured by Kirlian photography—it also captures the “auras” of coins.
The explanation for the results of Kirlian photography that is widely accepted is that the produced results are only caused by a high voltage corona effect. The high voltage that applied to the photographic plate affects the film. For the results that have different colors, the difference is that color films are used.
Though Kirlian photography is thoroughly disputed and lacks reliable proof, studies on the subject are still performed even after 50 years.
Many creative works, such as a series of science fiction books by Piers Anthony, a song “Kirlian Photograph” by Cabaret Voltaire, and a music album “Kirlian” by Benn Jordan, are inspired by the aspects of this method.
Beyond this, its usefulness and contribution to the world is debatable. Capturing a living organism’s energy field or supernatural aura on film still makes everyone skeptical, though acceptance of the existence of an aura is greater in these modern times.
Perhaps in the future people might discover something useful out of Kirlian photography, but right now it’s a concept that’s more than 70 years old.
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