Kirlian photography is a variety of photography developed by one Semyon Davidovich Kirlian in 1937. An object is placed into a circuit of a special apparatus, with electricity passing through it, and photographed. When this is done with living objects, glows called auras appear around them. Paranormalists claim that what is being photographed is a living energy field or bio-plasma or even the soul. But what are these glows?
What is being photographed is moisture! All living objects contain water. When electricity is passed through living objects in a Kirlian apparatus, they produce around themselves, from their moisture, an area of rapidly moving atoms with either positive or negative electrical charges called ions. This ionized gas will appear to glow and give off color when photographed with the Kirlian apparatus. When it is claimed that changes in a person's emotions and physical state can be detected with Kirlian photography, this reflects changes in perspiration, which varies depending on emotions and health.
There is no need to invoke anything mysterious or otherwise paranormal to explain what Kirlian photography shows.
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