Kirlian Photography - History

History

In 1889, Czech B. Navratil coined the word "electrography". Seven years later in 1896, a French experimenter, H. Baravuc, created electrographs of hands and leaves.

In 1898, Russian engineer Yakov Narkevich-Iodko 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. The same year, Russian 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 had 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 the a hand, a leaf or other plant material. The conductors were energized by a high frequency high voltage power source, producing photographic images typically showing a silhouette of the object surrounded by an aura of light.

In 1958, the Kirlians reported the results of their experiments for the first time. Their work was virtually unknown until 1970, when two Americans, Lynn Schroeder and Sheila Ostrander published a book, Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. Although little interest was generated among western scientists, Russians held a conference on the subject in 1972, at Kazakh State University.

Kirlian photography was used extensively in the former Eastern Bloc. For example, in the 1970s, Romania had 14,000 state-sponsored scientists working on the technique. The corona discharge glow at the surface of an object subjected to a high voltage electrical field is referred to as a Kirlian aura in Russia and Eastern Europe, however this should not to be confused with the paranormal concept of the aura. In 1975 Belarusian scientist Victor Adamenko wrote a dissertation titled Research of the structure of High-frequency electric discharge (Kirlain effect) images. The scientific study of Kirlian effect in Kazakhstan State Unuversity has performed Victor Inyushin.

Early in the 1970s, Thelma Moss and Kendall Johnson at the Center for Health Sciences at the UCLA conducted extensive research into Kirlian photography. Moss led an independent and unsupported parapsychology laboratory that was shut down by the university in 1979.

Kirlian's research first became known in the United States after Shelia Ostrander's and Lynn Schroeder's book "Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain" was published in 1970. High voltage electrophotography soon became known to the general public as Kirlian Photography.