Kirlian photography
Technique capturing electrical coronal discharges on photographic film.
Kirlian photography refers to a set of photographic methods that record electrical coronal discharges. The technique is named for Semyon Kirlian, a Soviet inventor and researcher of Russian and Armenian descent. In 1939, Kirlian made the discovery by chance: when an object placed on a photographic plate was linked to a high-voltage source, an image appeared on the plate. This approach has gone by many names, including electrography, electrophotography, corona(l) discharge photography (CDP), bioelectrography, gas discharge visualization (GDV), electrophotonic imaging (EPI), and, in Russian literature, Kirlianography. It has been explored in scientific studies, parapsychology, and art. While some have made paranormal claims about the technique, the scientific community rejects those claims. It has also been used extensively in alternative medicine research.
The history of the technique predates Kirlian. In 1889, Czech researcher Bartoloměj Navrátil coined the term "electrography." Seven years later, in 1896, French experimenter Hippolyte Baraduc produced electrographs of hands and leaves. In 1898, Polish-Belarusian engineer Jakub Jodko-Narkiewicz demonstrated electrography at the fifth exhibition of the Russian Technical Society. In 1939, two Czechs, S. Pratt and J. Schlemmer, published photographs showing a glow around leaves. That same year, Semyon Kirlian and his wife Valentina developed their version of the technique after observing a patient at Krasnodar Hospital who was receiving treatment from a high-frequency electrical generator. They noticed that when electrodes were brought near the patient's skin, a glow appeared, similar to that of a neon discharge tube. The Kirlians then experimented by placing photographic film on a conducting plate and attaching another conductor to a hand, leaf, or other plant material. Energizing the conductors with a high-frequency, high-voltage power source produced photographic images showing a silhouette surrounded by a luminous aura. They first reported their results in 1958. Their work remained largely unknown until 1970, when Americans Lynn Schroeder and Sheila Ostrander published *Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain*, which introduced high-voltage electrophotography to the public as Kirlian photography.
- Nationality
- Soviet (Russian and Armenian descent)
Lore & Background
In 1939, Soviet electrical engineer Semyon Kirlian and his wife Valentina developed Kirlian photography after observing a patient in Krasnodar Hospital who was receiving medical treatment from a high-frequency electrical generator. They noticed that when the electrodes were brought near the patient's skin, there was a glow similar to that of a neon discharge tube. The Kirlians conducted experiments in which photographic film was placed on top of a conducting plate, and another conductor was attached to a hand, a leaf or other plant material, energized by a high-frequency high-voltage power source, producing images showing a silhouette surrounded by an aura of light.
The Kirlians reported their results for the first time in 1958, but their work was virtually unknown until 1970, when two Americans, Lynn Schroeder and Sheila Ostrander, published a book, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. High-voltage electrophotography soon became known to the general public as Kirlian photography. In the former Eastern Bloc in the 1970s, the corona discharge glow was referred to as a 'Kirlian aura.' Scientific study of the Kirlian effect was conducted by Victor Inyushin at Kazakh State University, and early in the 1970s, Thelma Moss and Kendall Johnson at UCLA conducted extensive research into Kirlian photography, though Moss's parapsychology laboratory was shut down by the university in 1979.
Reader's Guide
Kirlian photography has been a subject of scientific research, parapsychology research, and pseudoscientific claims. Scientific experiments published in 1976 involving living tissue showed that most variations in corona discharge can be accounted for by moisture content on the surface of and within the tissue. Paranormal claims, such as the existence of a life force or energy field, have not been observed or replicated in experiments by the scientific community. The physiologist Gordon Stein wrote that Kirlian photography is a hoax with 'nothing to do with health, vitality, or mood of a subject photographed.' The torn leaf experiment, often used as evidence for energy fields, is repudiated by demonstrating that leaf moisture content has a pronounced effect on the electric discharge coronas; more moisture creates larger corona discharges. Kirlian's experiments did not provide evidence for an energy field other than the electrical discharge. The technique has been used in alternative medicine research and by visual artists such as Robert Buelteman, Ted Hiebert, and Dick Lane.
Did You Know?
- Kirlian photography was accidentally discovered in 1939 by Semyon Kirlian after observing a patient receiving high-frequency medical treatment in Krasnodar Hospital.
- The technique was virtually unknown until 1970, when two Americans published a book titled Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain.
- Scientific experiments in 1976 showed that most variations in corona discharge images of fingertips can be accounted for by moisture content on the surface of living tissue.
- The torn leaf experiment, often cited as evidence of a life force, is repudiated by showing that residual moisture on the imaging surface creates the faint image of the missing section.
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