Kirlian photography is named after the Russian Semyor Kirlian. In 1939, Kirlian proclaimed that certain types of photographs taken of patients while undergoing electrotherapy, showed bright dots and lights which can be connected with a human's "astral body" or "aura." Further experiments were said to show that all life forms emit this sort of glow but non-living objects do not. Interpretations of the phenomenon have claimed that an energy matrix is a part of every living organism and that upon death, this light show leaves the physical body and lives on in another realm - the astral plane. Skeptics of Kirlian photography have examined photographs to show that the anomalies can be explained through natural means. Some are the result of errors in photo development, others are the result of the equipment being used in electrotherapy rather than emanating from the living patient. Still other experiments do not contain any anomalies like those described by the paranormal community.
Russian engineers Valentina and Semyon Kirlian developed what they claimed to be a method of recording the aura of animate objects without the use of a camera. The technique was developed in the 1930s and is used in aura analysis. |