Kirilian Photography

 Kirilian photogrpahy

The corona discharge phenomena that produces a Kirilian photograph is, “greatly affected by many factors, including the voltage and frequency of the stimulus, the pressure with which a person or object touches the imaging surface, the local humidity around the object being imaged, how well grounded the person or object is, and other local factors affecting the conductivity of the person or object being imaged. Oils, sweat, bacteria, and other ionizing contaminants found on living tissues can also affect the resulting images.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography). 

Why does this rule out the possibility that Kirilian photographs also represent an “aura” or “energy field?” Much of science seeks to explain energy. When did “energy” become a non-scientific word as if the realms of science and “energy” were mutually exclusive? Our emotions change our physiology and our physiology changes our emotions. Everyone feels an energetic difference when they are in New York City versus in a quiet forest. The difference can be felt in the body. Most of us can feel right away the difference between a person with bright shining shen versus clouded shen. We don’t need to be Chinese medicine practitioners to notice. We can all feel the difference between someone who is sick and someone who radiates health. So why would anyone be surprised that these differences we are all aware of could take on a visualized from? Why does it matter if the images are produced due to physiological and environmental changes or a “life force.” Of course a shifting “life force,” is going to produce physiological and environmental changes. In fact, those two ideas are not only not mutually exclusive, but are rather one in the same. 

Furthermore, animate and inanimate objects both produce a cornona discharge. The idea that a torn leaf still produces a discharge despite being separated from its source of life as evidence that kirilian photography is not a reflection of “life force,” is one conclusion, but certainly not proof. Personally, I would interpret those results as a suggestion that everything has a life force, including inanimate objects. Everything in our universe is alive, dynamic, transforming, and in relationship. 

Kirilian photography is almost like synesthesia. It puts a visual image to a sense that we usually do not experience with sight, but perhaps more commonly experience through intuition. It is certainly beautiful and confirms what most psychedelic warriors have already experienced about the nature of life and the universe in which we live. How fantastic if it can be used as a tool to confirm what we already sense in our patients. Call it physiology or call it energy? Does it matter what we name it?