As “Eureka!” moments went it was rather fortuitous, occurring as it did outside the bath. The glowing disturbance that encircled his hands — caused by an otherwise harmless exposure to an electron cascade — would lead Russian scientist Semyon Davidovich Kirlian to an undeniable conclusion: an object on a photographic plate, when subjected to a high voltage electrical field, left an impression — what Kirlian would later describe as an aura.
It wasn't until some time after the end of hostilities across Europe — in the destructive wake of Hiroshima — that Kirlian's work would slip from under the iron curtain and into the popular mainstream, proffering hope that some scientific discoveries might in future be used to advance the holistic and spiritual awakening of man.
Today the full potential of his work has yet to be realised or fully understood. The curious, captivating images that Kirlian photography describes are like works of art: glorious to behold but, when it comes to their meaning, often tough to pin down.
The Aura Debate: Souls, Animism, and Science
Kirlian and researchers since have continued to capture auras on closed inanimate systems such as coins and stones. Some regard this as proof of the ancient pagan religion of animism — in which all objects, animate or not, are said to possess a life force, or soul. After all, in psychometry, the reading of energy fields is said by practitioners to uncover the history of inanimate objects.
Others are more measured. Nigel Garion-Hutchings, who has been researching the inherent nature of Kirlian photography and its potential use as a tool in holistic therapy for over 25 years, puts it plainly: “Calling it an aura is neither here nor there. If we could begin to define ‘the soul’ we may know if Kirlian photography could show some proof of it, but I doubt we could beyond some religious definition.”
The suggestion is that Kirlian photography is not the right tool for proving the existence of a soul — but that does not diminish what it can tell us.
Open vs. Closed Systems: The Crux of Living Energy
The real distinction comes when comparing the active Kirlian signature of a human to that of an inanimate stone or coin. The interference pattern — the corona — created between an applied electrical charge and an inanimate object is relatively constant. With humans and other animate objects, this is rarely the case.
“Inanimate objects are classed as closed systems because they are limited by the laws of physics in their responses, unlike open [animate] systems that are actively and intelligently engaged in their responses.”
— Nigel Garion-Hutchings
A living body must continually adapt to maintain a delicate physiological balance with its surroundings. It is these adaptations that define the state of the body at a given point in time. Kirlian photography — what Garion-Hutchings prefers to call radiation field photography — can capture the state of the subject and, when taken in series, acts as a powerful indicator of health and changing physiological state.
Kirlian Photography as a Diagnostic Tool
Take for example a person in a calm and relaxed state, who when stressed often exhibits a significantly changed flare pattern around the fingers. Research suggests that states of stress and relaxation modify the corona discharge in measurable ways.
Conventional lie detectors detect subtle variations in physiological arousal by measuring the electrical conductance of the skin — moisture produced as an autonomic response. Some sceptics claim Kirlian photography relies on moisture in much the same way. But renowned psychologist Dr. Thelma Mosscould find no relationship between changes in skin resistance and a subject's Kirlian signature. Her conclusion: changes in Kirlian photographs owe more to the mood and conscious state of the subject than any purely physical explanation alone.
For Garion-Hutchings, moisture is a distraction — symptomatic of a physical paradigm that “despite its achievements, often serves to imprison us all in a narrow band of thinking.” His interest is profoundly holistic: how the subject adapts to the particular high-voltage frequency applied, not merely how conductive it is.
Holistic Applications: Four Levels of Experience
To prescribe a correct course of holistic therapy, one must account for a person's symptoms on all four levels of experience: mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical — and study the connections between them. For Garion-Hutchings, each person's disease response is unique to their own constitution.
“Our methods show people in a visual way how their states of mind, emotional responses and lifestyle choices impact upon their energy fields and ultimately their general health.”
— Nigel Garion-Hutchings
Cancer Screening and the Limits of the Technology
Kirlian himself believed his photography might diagnose the early onset of disease, claiming he could detect initial stages of pathology in plants ahead of conventional medicine. Renowned scientist and inventor Harry Oldfield has even suggested the technology could be employed to screen for cancer.
Garion-Hutchings is less certain about such claims, but is keen to point out that the method is capable of highlighting susceptibility to potential problems:
“We have seen a person's energy field diminishing a few days before coming down with the flu. A person who shows a stressed image is likely to be compromising their immune system, so increasing their susceptibility to illness.”
— Nigel Garion-Hutchings
On the potential for food diagnostics: “Kirlian electrographs highlight a marked contrast between fresh vegetables and devitalized food. Types of cooking such as microwaving can decrease and disturb the energy field of fresh foods.”
On the face of it, the potential applications for Kirlian photography seem wide: from detecting stress states to the vitality of food and holistic treatments. As open systems ourselves, we would do well to guard against closing our minds to all that is ‘out there’ — after all, when we cast the net wider, we invariably catch more than simple untruths.