A leaf is placed on a photographic plate. A high-voltage pulse passes through it. In the darkroom, when the print emerges, the leaf is surrounded by a jagged blue-white corona, as if it were burning from within. The image looks like a soul escaping its vessel. For decades, that photograph was called a Kirlian photograph, and people believed it captured the life force itself.
Energy field imaging and Kirlian photography are related but distinct techniques. Kirlian photography is a contact print process that records corona discharge on film using high voltage. Energy field imaging (often called Gas Discharge Visualization or GDV) is a digital evolution that captures the same phenomenon with a camera and computer, then maps the patterns onto a model of the human body. Neither actually photographs the aura. Both document the electrical response of an object to a strong electromagnetic field.
How Kirlian Photography Was Discovered
In 1939, Semyon Kirlian, a Soviet electrical engineer, was repairing a high-frequency electrotherapy device at a hospital in Krasnodar. He noticed that when a patient’s skin came close to the electrodes, a tiny flash of light appeared. Curious, he placed a photographic plate between the electrode and his own hand, then passed a current through it. When he developed the plate, he saw a fingerprint-like pattern of glowing lines and a halo around his fingers.
Kirlian spent the next decade refining the technique with his wife Valentina. They built a device that used a spark-gap generator to produce short, high-voltage pulses. A metal plate served as one electrode; the object being photographed (a leaf, a coin, a fingertip) sat directly on the photographic emulsion. The second electrode touched the object from above. When the pulse fired, the air around the object ionized, creating a visible discharge that exposed the film.
The Kirlian couple published their first paper in 1949 in a Soviet scientific journal. Western audiences learned of the work only in the 1970s, when parapsychologists like Thelma Moss at UCLA began replicating the experiments. Moss’s 1979 book The Body Electric brought Kirlian photography into the New Age mainstream, where it was quickly adopted as a tool for reading auras.
What Energy Field Imaging Actually Does
Energy field imaging emerged in the 1990s, when digital cameras replaced film. The most common system is Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV), developed by Russian physicist Konstantin Korotkov. Instead of a photographic plate, the subject places a fingertip on a glass plate behind which a lens and CCD sensor sit. A brief high-voltage pulse (typically 10 kV, lasting a few microseconds) is applied. The corona discharge is captured digitally, and software analyzes the shape, brightness, and fractal patterns of the glow.
Korotkov’s system maps the fingertip discharge onto a diagram of the human body, assigning each finger to a specific organ or system based on acupuncture meridian theory. The result is a color-coded “energy field” image that practitioners use to assess vitality, stress, or imbalance. The GDV device is sold as a biofeedback tool, not a medical diagnostic instrument, though some alternative health clinics use it as such.
The key difference from Kirlian photography is digitization. Kirlian photographs are single static images, one per exposure. GDV captures dozens of frames per second and can track changes in the discharge over time. The digital data can be processed, averaged, and compared against a database of thousands of subjects. But the fundamental phenomenon is identical: corona discharge in a high-voltage field.
What the Corona Actually Shows
The corona is not the soul. It is a physical effect: the ionization of gas molecules (mostly nitrogen and oxygen) in the air around the object. When the voltage is high enough, electrons are stripped from the gas atoms, creating a plasma that emits light. The color depends on the gas composition (nitrogen gives blue-violet, oxygen gives greenish) and the humidity of the air.
The shape of the corona is determined by the electrical properties of the object itself. A dry leaf produces a different pattern than a wet one. A fingertip with sweat on it conducts better and produces a brighter, more uniform glow than a dry fingertip. The Kirlian “phantom leaf” effect, where a partial leaf appears to leave a ghostly outline after a piece is torn off, is now understood to be caused by residual moisture on the plate. No paranormal explanation is required.
For the occult practitioner, none of this invalidates the image’s value. The corona is a real physical trace of the object’s interaction with the field. If the body’s electrical conductivity changes with emotional state, hydration, or illness, the corona will change too. The question is whether those changes correspond to anything we would call an aura.
Kirlian Photography in Esoteric Practice
When Thelma Moss began her work at UCLA in the early 1970s, she was not a physicist but a psychologist. She used Kirlian photography to study emotional states: she photographed the fingertips of subjects before and after meditation, after drinking alcohol, after a stressful conversation. The images showed clear differences. A calm subject produced a smooth, even corona. An agitated subject produced jagged spikes and dark gaps.
Moss’s findings were published in peer-reviewed journals, but the effect was never replicated consistently. Critics pointed out that the changes could be explained by sweat, pressure, or the angle of the fingertip on the plate. Still, the idea that the corona reflected something invisible was too compelling to abandon.
In the decades since, Kirlian photography has been used by energy healers, Reiki practitioners, and chakra readers. The typical setup is a small box with a metal plate and a Polaroid camera. The client presses a hand or a leaf onto the plate, the practitioner triggers the pulse, and the resulting image is interpreted. A bright, even glow is read as strong life force. Dark spots or missing areas indicate blockages. The colors are assigned meanings: blue for calm, red for passion, yellow for mental activity.
Energy field imaging takes this further. GDV software generates a “human energy field” diagram with colored rings around the body. The practitioner can show the client a visual representation of their supposed aura, then recommend treatments like acupuncture, herbs, or crystal work. The machine becomes a tool for belief, not measurement.
The Difference Between Kirlian and GDV
Both techniques rely on the same physics. The differences are technical and cultural.
Kirlian photography is analog. It requires a darkroom, photographic chemicals, and a high-voltage generator. The image is a direct contact print, so there is no lens distortion, but the resolution is limited by the film grain. The corona is recorded as a physical pattern of exposed silver halide crystals. Each print is unique and cannot be easily quantified.
GDV is digital. The corona is captured by a CCD sensor through a glass plate, then processed by software. The image can be enhanced, colorized, and analyzed statistically. The system can measure the area of the corona, the fractal dimension of its edges, and the distribution of brightness. This makes it more reproducible, but also more susceptible to software artifacts and interpretation bias.
In practice, Kirlian photography is used by hobbyists, artists, and traditional occultists. GDV is used by alternative medicine clinics and researchers who want data. The two communities rarely overlap. A Kirlian photographer might dismiss GDV as a computer-generated illusion. A GDV operator might call Kirlian photography primitive and unreliable.
Common Misconceptions
Kirlian photography photographs the aura. It does not. It photographs corona discharge, which is a physical phenomenon. The aura, as described in occult traditions, is a subtle energy field that cannot be captured by electromagnetic means. No experiment has ever shown a correlation between Kirlian images and clairvoyant aura readings.
Energy field imaging can diagnose disease. It cannot. The GDV device is not approved by any medical regulatory body. Studies have shown that the corona changes with physiological variables like hydration and skin temperature, but no reliable diagnostic criteria exist. Some researchers have found correlations between GDV parameters and conditions like depression or chronic fatigue, but the results are preliminary and not clinically useful.
The phantom leaf proves the existence of a biofield. The phantom leaf effect, where a torn leaf leaves a ghostly outline, was once cited as evidence of a pre-existing energy template. Controlled experiments showed that the effect is caused by moisture left on the plate from the original leaf. When the plate is cleaned and dried, the phantom disappears.
Kirlian photography is the same as aura photography. Aura photography, as sold in New Age shops, uses a different principle. The subject places their hands on sensors that measure skin conductance and temperature, and a computer generates a colored halo around a Polaroid portrait based on those readings. The colors are assigned by software, not by any actual light emission. Kirlian photography, by contrast, records a real light emission, even if it is not the aura.
FAQ
Can Kirlian photography see auras? No. It records corona discharge, not the subtle energy field described in occult traditions. The two are often conflated, but no scientific evidence links them.
Is Kirlian photography scientifically proven? The phenomenon of corona discharge is well understood in physics. The claim that it measures life force or health is not supported by rigorous evidence. Some studies show correlations, but the effect is weak and inconsistent.
What is the difference between Kirlian and GDV? Kirlian uses film and a contact print; GDV uses a digital camera and software. GDV allows quantitative analysis and real-time monitoring, but both capture the same physical effect.
Can energy field imaging detect illness? Not reliably. Some practitioners use GDV as a screening tool, but it is not a medical diagnostic device. Changes in the corona can be caused by many factors unrelated to disease.
The corona is a real phenomenon, but it is not the soul. That does not make it useless. For the practitioner who understands what it actually records, Kirlian photography and energy field imaging are tools for observing the body’s electrical behavior, a visible trace of the invisible currents that run through living tissue. The image is a map, not the territory. How you read it depends on what you believe.
If you want to explore the concept of the aura further, see our guide to auras and the glossary entry for biofield. For a deeper look at how energy healers use these tools, read our guide to energy field imaging in practice.