Kirlian Photography Explained: Human Auras, Crystal Auras, And MORE! 

The first time I heard about Kirlian photography was during my phase of ‘George Harrison’ love. If you love this Beatle as much as I do, you might remember the album ‘Living in the material world’. The cover image of that album shows George Harrison holding a Hindu medallion in the palm of his hand.

Attribution: LITMW_album_cover_(clean).jpg ‎(300 × 300 pixels, file size: 12 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg.  Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LITMW_album_cover_(clean).jpg#filehistory

 

But it wasn’t an ordinary photo. It was a Kirlian photo taken at the parapsychology department of UCLA^[1]. At the time, I went digging more into it because I was into photography and realized it was an aura photo. But what I found later about auras got me down the rabbit hole of metaphysics of human auras. What is this halo that’s visible through a photograph? What is a Kirlian photo?

Kirlian photography is a picture that reveals your physical, emotional, and spiritual state through color theory naturally. It’s the way scientists are finally decoding auras around objects, plants, animals, and humans.

Before you fall into another sinkhole as I did, read on to find out everything about Kirlian photography. I will explain how it works, the chief ways to read Kirlian photos, scientific evidence that vouches for its efficacy, and the world of crystals through the Kirlian lens.

 

What Are Auras And Why Does It Matter?

Some people say aura is the halo around a person. And others say it’s a medium through which the invisible is finally visible to the naked eye.

You’ll hear theologists and spiritualists call it the essence of the person emanating around them. Some say it’s 3 feet around you and others claim it can go up to 50 feet away from you.

Ancient Hindus called it Prana and the ancient Chinese ‘Chi’ energy, but both points toward the same human biofield radiant around the human body called an aura.

Official dictionary definition refers to ‘Aura’ as the distinctive atmosphere or energy that surrounds a living being. This is often thought of as the essence of the living being too.

Just as a prism splits white light into seven colors of the spectrum, there are seven shades of aura too. Because the intensity of aura changes from person-to-person and situation-to-situation, the list of colors in auric shades can range from hundreds to thousands.

Aura can be explained as the energy status^[2]  of a person. Alternatively, it could be the visual representation of the energy of a person. Scholars often describe this energy as an electromagnetic field around you, that’s radiated or emanated by your being.

Typically, the color of an aura is interpreted with the use of chakra colors. For example, if a person has a strong navy blue aura, she/he must be good at communication due to the powerful throat chakra. Similarly, a person with an overpowering orange aura might have a strong root chakra. Their aura shows the vitality of their grounding energy.

All that being said, the aura isn’t like your fingerprint. It keeps changing with your thoughts, moods, emotions, people you come across, things that happen in your life, and energy that comes across your path (especially from things you believe don’t have energy like rocks or crystals). That’s because aura constantly shifts. It changes colors, it expands, it shrinks, it becomes opaque, and can even turn into a see-through color too.

The interesting thing is there are other explanations of auras too.

There are people who advocate an aura is a sphere with eight parts that outlines the physical body too, especially in Buddhism. It says our aura sphere has eight parts that signify the five senses of consciousness (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch), defiled mental consciousness, stored consciousness, and the consciousness that remembered your past life experiences to become seeds to the next life when you take rebirth in Buddhism^[3].

 

What’s Kirlian Photography?

Ever wondered what a psychic sees she/he looks at you? While you may have to pay a psychic to know the answer to that, there’s a better way to interpret your aura in a snap of a pic with Kirlian photography.

Popular as the Kirlian Aura Photography, this is a type of photography where electrical corona discharges around a person, thing, or object is captured using a photographic plate. It’s actually the ionized air around an object when charged with a high voltage current. The photographic plate captures the soft details of ionized air that’s believed to be the aura of a person.

Also called ‘Aura Photography’, this generates photos with the electromagnetic energy of a person fully visible. In simple words, you can see the aura on an aura portrait. It can be better understood as capturing the energetic field around you.

Let’s look at the history and origins of Kirlian Photography. 

 Who invented Kirlian photography? 

Semyon Davidovitch Kirlian^[4] is attributed with the technique of Kirlian photography and he had a history of experimenting with human auras.

But ‘electrography’ was coined by B. Navratil in 1889, H. Baraduc made electrographs of leaves and human hands in 1896, it was demonstrated by Jakub Jodko-Narkiewicz in 1898, it was published by S. Pratt and J. Schlemmer in 1939.   

In the same year, Mr. and Mrs. Kirlian observed a patient glowing in a neon light when getting nearer to the high-frequency electricity generator used for treatment. The Kirlians went onto set up experiments using the photographic plate, an animal or plant part, and electrical conductors. They saw silhouettes with colors that changed from one specimen to another.

While they weren’t popular in Russia or anywhere else, their work hit the mainstream public in 1970 via a book written by two Americans Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder called Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain.

It was also a hot topic when the George Harrison album sleeve showing a Kirlian photo of his hand holding sacred medallions shot at the UCLA Parapsychology lab became popular. But all that aside, the person who brought aura imaging to the mainstream public is Dr. Guy Coggins with the middle name ‘Aura’ who developed the first AuraCam^[5].

Today, this photography technique is also called electrophotography, CDP or Corona Discharge Photography, Bioelectrography, Kirlianography.

 

How Kirlian Photography Works?

Many spiritual scholars often call this glow seen on aura portraits the astral body of the person and others describe it as the life force energy. If you believe in the chakras and energies, the aura is the same life force present in your lower chakra.

Such a photograph can show the radiance of your chakra energies, emotional status, and spiritual prowess. Wondering how? It’s quite simple to grasp actually.

For starters, human beings are hubs of energy.

From chakras to thoughts, actions, karma, and several other types of energies, we are always absorbing or dispelling invisible forces. And the truth is it’s not just us. Animals and plants around you also have the same energy.

Kirlians originally built the setup with a motive of detecting illnesses and speeding treatments. They typically demonstrated their conclusions based on the various stages of a torn leaf. Called the ‘Torn Leaf Experiment’, it showed aura around the torn part of the leaf long after it was gone.

Here’s a Kirlian picture of the Dusty Miller leaf to understand it easily.

 

Attribution : Rarobison11, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MDR_Dusty_Miller.jpg

 

Since then Kirlian photography appeared on TV, books, theaters, and media outlets to become a normal thing today. Today you can walk into a shop run by Kirlian photographers such as Radiant Human, We Are Aura Aura, Aura Aura, etcetera to get your Kirlian photograph taken.

Such a photo isn’t taken with any ordinary camera. You need a whole setup consisting of the Kirlian camera, hand plates, and dark space to make it work. In total, the cost of a Kirlian aura photography setup can cost more than $16,000 on average^[6].

Process Of Kirlian Photography

Believed to show your soul, energy, astral body, living force, vitality, mood, and more, you can get a Kirlian photo taken in a few minutes.

Here’s a video from Aura Aura that explains how the process works:

 

Nowadays you can walk into an aura studio and get your photo taken in a few minutes. All you’ve to do is sit down, relax, and place your hands on the silver plate given to you. The camera will read vibrations via its electrodes to show your aura color.

The best thing is you can even get Aura videos in addition to portraits to see a string of aura colors that change around you. It can cost as little as $20 to get your aura portrait taken 

How To Read Kirlian Photos?

A Kirlian photo essentially reads the aura using energy emitted from meridian points or pressure points that are generally located on your fingers and palm. Such a photo captures the ‘Kirlian effect’ where your electro-photonic-glow is detected.

But how do you read it? What do different colors of the aura mean? How to recognize emotions from Kirlian pictures?

Let’s dig in!

How To Interpret A Kirlian Photo Or Aura Portrait?

Whether you know about the seven major chakras in the human body or not, it’s easy to understand the Kirlian photo by using the color theory. One thing to keep in mind before getting your Kirlian photograph taken is that aura changes in colors, size, and shape based on your own energies. So, you can’t say your aura is red or that it’s solid if you’ve taken the photo only once.

Here’s the only outline you need.

Intensity

Depending on how intense your aura is, there are several things to determine. While a solid^[7] color translates to a grounded person, a transparent aura means your life force energy is weak.  A hole in the aura represents the emptiness within or the lack of forgiveness/ guilt.

Size

According to the Buddhist belief system, the aura of an average person emanates less than 3 feet, followed by a disciple who’s go all the way up to 6 feet, which is lower than that of an aspirant spanning up to 9 feet. The farthest aura is of a master that extends up to 30 feet^[8].

Sides

• Left side: The aura color on your left describes the Past. It’s your feminine side.
• Center top: This is the aura color representing your Present
• Right side: The color for your Future shows up on the right side. It’s your masculine side.
• Center middle: This is the color of your feelings and emotions^[9].

Meaning Of Aura Colors And Effects (200)

Want to know the kind of vibe you’re emanating around and towards others? All you need to know is what different aura colors mean including their effects and anomalies.

Here are the aura colors with meanings:

• Violet: The color of the crown chakra is also the symbol of spiritual consciousness and creativity. If your aura is purple, you’re a visionary.
• Indigo: Enlightened persons with the knowledge of the truth have an indigo aura. They also have an active third-eye chakra.
• Blue: This is the aura of persons with exceptional communication skills and awakened throat chakra.
• Green: When your heart is open, you love people, nature around, and radiate a green aura. It may be a sign that you’re growing too.
• Yellow: Sign of intelligence and optimism, you love freedom if your aura is in yellow color. It’s the aura of leaders.
• Orange: If your aura is orange in color, it means you’re kind, energetic, positive, and healthy. It’s an aura seen in those with excellent people’s skills.
• Red: The color of strength, confidence, and bravery, red aura shows your willpower is solid too. If this is your color, you’re very passionate.
• Earthy: Colors like brown, tan, beige, or pale green that’s seen around in nature are earthy colors and it translates to good grounding and balance.
• Magenta: A mix of purple and red, magenta aura means spiritual knowledge with confidence. You’re creative and vibrant.
• Pink: People with loving energies and pleasant vibrations have a pink aura. It’s a sign of loyalty, compassion, romance, and generosity.
• White: One of the rarest aura colors, white shows is indicative of your connection to the ethereal world. The crown chakra is at its peak here.
• Black: There isn’t any black aura, there just isn’t any aura if your aura portrait shows up with black.

Experimental Evidence Of Aura

While you couldn’t see auras with the naked eyes a few years ago, there have been many changes since the Common Era at the moment. You can now take photos and videos of people to observe their auras in a few minutes. Once thought of as paranormal is as popular as the photo booths of the 90s today.

Ahead we will discuss the evidence of aura from different research teams.

●       Dr. Thelma Moss

Dr. Thelma Moss^[10] from UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute specified emotions with aura colors. Her findings were that happy and healthy subjects exhibited blue coronas that were wide while red was a sign of unhappiness. The doctor also found big coronas were found among friends photographed together or those who were photographed with amiable strangers.

Another interesting conclusion was that intimate partners produced coronas that amalgamated together unlike that of couples who hated each other as their coronas didn’t merge one bit. An experiment with the psychic Uri Geller by Dr. J.L Hickman found it was possible to create differently-shaped coronas by willpower alone.

●       German Study

The documentary Kirlian Photography as an Art and Science^[11] quotes a study conducted on two people that are particularly vouching for the boundaries of Kirlian portraits. The two persons were asked to place their fingers beside each other and take a picture for three weeks consistently, once every week.

The scientists were able to determine that the man was attracted to the woman at first based on his large corona discharge, unlike the woman. By the second week, the woman’s corona became more expansive as she grew interested in him. In the third week, their coronas blended together becoming one, as seen in couples because they started dating and finally started living together.

●       The Portrait Machine Project

A photographer from Brooklyn named Carlo Van de Roer is famed with the Portrait Machine Project where he photographed friends, family, and artists with a Polaroid AuraCam 6000 (the latest from Guy Coggins) to track different auras.

Combining over forty illustrations, the aura portrait book is available for $40 today^[12]. It also provides a sheet of information describing the traits of each aura color. This project earned over $16,000 on Kickstarter.

Crystals And Kirlian Photography

Just like human beings, crystals also contain healing energies. That’s why Kirlian photography of crystals turns out with different aura colors just ourselves.

For instance, Ammonite is a healing crystal that emanates colors of blue to purple, pink, and white under Kirlian photography. It may also take aura colors like red and orange based on the individual traits of the specific ammonite crystal you photograph using an Aura Cam. Hence, the aura of crystals keeps changing like our own auras. It can affect our own life force energy when we interact with such stones. 

 

Too Long; Didn’t Read? 

We learned all about auras in detail today. From called human biofield to the atmosphere around each of us and our electrical discharge, there are many different definitions for auras. Using a Kirlian camera, it’s possible to take photographs of living and nonliving things in a few minutes. Such a setup was introduced by the Russian scholar Kirlian and his wife.

However, the concept of electrography was popular even before that. Several other scientists had made correlations between corona discharges between objects and living beings way before. Today, Kirlian photography costs a few dollars and just a few minutes.

There are several artists around the world who are experts in taking Kirlian photos with a camera called AuraCam developed by another aura photography expert called Guy Coggins.

If you get an aura photo clicked, it’s important to consider the intensity of your aura colors and its size to start with. Once you get that, start interpreting the past, present, and future auras from the portrait. Lastly, all you need to know are the aura colors to fully understand the concept of auras.

Aura isn’t a myth and much evidence from UCLA study and other parts of the world exist. Start by browsing the Aura Portrait made by Carl Van Doer to find out more about it. Another use of Kirlian photography is for observing the power of healing crystal energies.

Next time you walk in to take your aura photo, also take your favorite crystal with you to see how it affects your own aura. If you’re still wondering how Kirlian photos make sense, leave us a comment below and I’ll get right to it.

References

1. Wikipedia Writers (2004). Living in the material world. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_in_the_Material_World. Accessed on 24 March 2021.
2. Sadhguru (2012). What is an Aura? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs8zCOeKFss&ab_channel=Sadhguru. Accessed on 24 March 2021.
3. Wikipedia Writers (2003). Eight Consciousnesses. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Consciousnesses Accessed on 24 March 2021.
4. Wikipedia Writers (2001). Kirlian Photography. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirlian_photography Accessed on 24 March 2021.
5. Phoenix Rising Now (2018). Aura Photography. Retrieved from https://phoenixrisingnow.com/livesite/about-aura-imaging/ Accessed on 24 March 2021.
6. Charlie Watts (2020) Colorize electromagnetic fields with aura photography. Retrieved from https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/discover/aura-photography.html Accessed on 24 March 2021.
7. Aura Imaging Flipbook. Retrieved from https://dokument.pub/aura-key-helpful-aura-facts-aura-imaging-flipbook-pdf.html Accessed on 24 March 2021.
8. Joleen (2015). The Aura. Retrieved from https://wmea-world.org/blog/2015/07/07/the-aura/ Accessed on 24 March 2021.
9. Sedona Aura Photo. Aura Size and Shape. Retrieved from https://sedonaauraphoto.com/aura-size-and-chakras/ Accessed on 24 March 2021.
10. Eric Dubay (). Spiritual Science. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?id=DbhUCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT192&lpg=PT192&dq Accessed on 24 March 2021.
11. Atlantean Conspiracy (2013). Biofield Electrography, Kirlian Photography, and the Aura. Retrieved from http://www.atlanteanconspiracy.com/2013/07/biofield-electrography-kirlian.html Accessed on 24 March 2021.
12. The Portrait Machine Project. Retrieved from www.theportraitmachine.com/pg18.html Accessed on 24 March 2021.