Online Reference For Body, Mind & Spirit

Term: Kirlian Photography

DEFINITIONs:
1.  Discovered in the Soviet Union by S.D. and V. Kirlian, and popularized in the US by Dr. Thelma Moss, Kirlian photos use high voltage and low amperage electricity going through an object, rather than light reflecting from it, to take a photo. The result shows dramatic images of colored energy patterns and halos around the objects. Scientists refer to this as a “coronal discharge,” but mystics claim it is actually a photo of the aura. Most famously it illustrated a complete image of a halo around a leaf after part of the leaf had been removed. Some have speculated that this is related to the “phantom limb” experience of many who have had a limb amputated.
AUTHOR:  Donald Michael Kraig

2.   A method for photographing the etheric aura (electromagnetic field) around plant and animal parts. In 1939 Semyon Kirlian, a Russian scientist, developed Kirlian photography, which reveals an energy discharge around fingers, plant leaves or other living forms. Rather than photographing the actual aura, the Kirlian photograph shows a corona discharge occurring when the subject is placed on a film upon a metal plate charged with high voltage electricity. See: electrophotography.

Suggested Reading:

Krippner, S. & Rubin, D.: The Kirlian Aura—Photographing the Galaxies of Life

AUTHOR:  Carl Llewellyn Weschcke