Kirlian photography is a technique that records the glow of an electrical corona discharge around an object placed on photographic film and exposed to high voltage. Named after Semyon and Valentina Kirlian, who developed it in the Soviet Union from 1939, it became famous in the 1970s as supposed evidence of an aura or life energy. Scientists explain the images through ordinary physics, especially moisture.
Kirlian Photography at a glance
| Also called | Electrography; corona discharge photography |
|---|---|
| Named after | Semyon Kirlian (1898-1978) and Valentina Kirlian |
| Developed | From 1939, Krasnodar, USSR |
| Soviet patent | 1949 |
| Earlier pioneer | Jakub Jodko-Narkiewicz (1890s) |
| Physical basis | Corona discharge in a high-voltage electric field |
| Key study | Pehek and colleagues, Science, 1976 |
Origins of the Technique
Photographing electrical discharges is older than the Kirlians. In the late nineteenth century the engineer Jakub Jodko-Narkiewicz, working in the Russian Empire, demonstrated what he called electrography, producing images of sparks around fingers and other objects, and similar experiments were carried out by several other investigators.
Semyon Kirlian, an electrician from Krasnodar in southern Russia, is said to have noticed the effect in 1939 while watching a patient receive treatment from a high-frequency electrical device. With his wife Valentina, a teacher and journalist, he spent decades refining the method, and in 1949 the couple received a Soviet patent for a way of photographing by means of high-frequency currents. Their work attracted little attention abroad until the 1960s and 1970s, when popular books on Soviet psychic research, notably Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain (1970) by Sheila Ostrander and Lynn Schroeder, introduced it to Western readers.
How It Works
In a typical setup, a sheet of photographic film or paper is placed on an insulated metal plate. The object, such as a leaf, coin or fingertip, is placed on the film, and a high-voltage, high-frequency current is briefly applied. The strong electric field ionizes the air in the thin gap around the object, producing a corona discharge, the same phenomenon that can make high-voltage power lines glow and crackle. The light and the electrical activity expose the film, leaving a silhouette of the object surrounded by a halo of streamers and sparks.
The appearance of this halo depends on many physical factors: the voltage and frequency, exposure time, pressure of contact, the shape and conductivity of the object, the temperature and humidity of the air, and above all the moisture on and within the object. Living tissue, such as a leaf or a finger, contains water that varies from moment to moment, which is why images of living things change far more than images of coins.
Aura and Paranormal Claims
Many enthusiasts interpreted the colorful halos as a visible aura or "bioplasma," a life energy that might reveal health, emotions or psychic states. In the 1970s the psychologist Thelma Moss led parapsychological research at the University of California, Los Angeles, that explored whether Kirlian images could detect changes in mood or the effects of healers, and practitioners of alternative medicine proposed using the images for diagnosis.
The most famous claim was the phantom leaf effect: after part of a leaf was cut away, some photographs appeared to show the outline of the missing piece, as though an energy body persisted. Supporters saw this as strong evidence for an invisible field, and the idea spread widely in books about ESP and psychic healing. Kirlian images are still sometimes sold at fairs as aura photographs.
The Scientific Explanation
Controlled research has not supported the paranormal interpretations. A study by Pehek and colleagues, published in the journal Science in 1976, found that most of the variation in the corona images of fingertips could be explained by the amount of moisture on and in the skin. When moisture and other variables were controlled, the supposed emotional or spiritual differences disappeared.
The phantom leaf effect is explained in the same physical terms. When the whole leaf is first placed on the plate, it leaves moisture and residues on the surface; a later image of the cut leaf can pick up these traces. When the plate is cleaned between exposures, the phantom does not appear. Critics also note that many dramatic results were never reliably replicated. The scientific consensus is that Kirlian photography shows a real electrical phenomenon, corona discharge, but no evidence of an aura or life force.
Legacy
Kirlian photography remains a vivid example of how a genuine physical effect can become attached to paranormal beliefs. It sits alongside other topics of 1970s psychic research such as psychokinesis and telepathy, and its popularity helped shape modern ideas about the human energy field.
The technique also has artistic and some technical uses: the striking images have been used by photographers, and related corona discharge methods have been studied for detecting surface features and moisture in materials. Readers interested in the older ideas of an invisible vital force may compare the entry on animal magnetism, and for the history of energy healing claims more broadly, the entry on kundalini.
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Frequently asked questions
Does Kirlian photography show your aura?
No scientific evidence shows that it does. The glow in Kirlian images is a corona discharge produced by high voltage, and its appearance changes with moisture, pressure, voltage and other physical factors. When these are controlled, the differences claimed to reflect emotions, health or spiritual states disappear.
What is the phantom leaf effect?
It is the claim that a Kirlian photograph of a leaf with a piece cut off can still show the outline of the missing part. Researchers found that the ghost image comes from moisture and residue left on the plate by the whole leaf; cleaning the plate between exposures removes the effect.
Who invented Kirlian photography?
The technique is named after Semyon and Valentina Kirlian, who developed it in the Soviet Union from 1939 and patented a method in 1949. However, earlier experimenters, including Jakub Jodko-Narkiewicz in the 1890s, had already photographed similar electrical discharges around objects and living bodies.
Sources and further reading
This entry replaces an article from the original Mystica encyclopedia (online since 2001). It was rewritten from the sources above by The Mystica Editorial Team under our editorial standards. Last reviewed: September 30, 2026.