Culture
Highlights Column
Periodically Updated
Recommendations |
Featured music:
"Footprints
in Paradise"
Title track excerpt
from Larry Lagerberg's
first CD release.
Smooth, relaxing jazz.
Album available at Larry's website
here
Play music sample
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Recommended reading:
Nihilism in Film and Television
(2006)
by Kevin L. Stoehr
Stoehr offers a critical overview of the nihilistic vision of film noir
from Citizen Kane
to The Sopranos.
Though I offer an alternative to a noir interpretation of The Sopranos
(click here), Stoehr's chapter on this TV
series is insightful, as is the entire book. For publisher's
information click on the title.
Evil Incarnate: Rumors of Demonic Conspiracy
and Satanic Abuse in History
(2006)
by David Frankfurter
Consistent
with the thesis of Our Faith in Evil,
Frankfurter challenges the social/cultural value invested in the
traditional concept of evil by revealing how this fictional concept
creates very real horrors in human community. For publisher's
information click on the title.
Featured
reading among recent additions to this
site:
W. B. Macomber's
Love and
Culture
A Philosophical commentary inspired by Plato's
Symposium
Chapters released monthly
For Table of Contents, further information,
and chapter links click
here
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Recommended viewing:
No
Country for Old Men
(2007)
Directed by
Ethan and Joel Coen
Based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy and winner of
four Academy
Awards. See further comments and links on the home page.
Merry
Christmas
Mr. Lawrence
(1983)
Directed by Nagisa Oshima
Optimum's 2005 DVD release of this classic film contains an interview
with the author of the book on which Oshima's screenplay is
based--Laurens Van Der Post--as well as interviews with David Bowie and
Ryuichi Sakamoto. This World War II POW drama presents an extraordinary
clash of cultural differences and individual wills. Click on the title
above for my commentary on the film.
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Recommended art:
The
Salvador Dali Gallery
Browse a complete collection of Dali's work along with a wealth of
information about each work and his life
The Zeugma Mosaics
Beautiful GrecoRoman art saved from a flooded section of the Euphrates
River. See the video fly-through at this link for the 14 room Roman
villa that housed these amazing mosaics.
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A Look at the Kirlian Controversy
This
part of my website is devoted to commentary on unusual or
controversial cultural phenomena and the featured topic will change
from time to time. Although I have an interest in Kirlian photography,
having pursued it as an occasional hobby and source of amusement with
friends over the past years, I should state at the outset that this is
not a defense of or panegyric for a particular understanding of Kirlian
photography. It attempts to be a balanced account revealing some of the
pros and cons on both sides of the controversy regarding the status of
what is being represented in Kirlian photographs. Aside from all that,
the pictures are beautiful, entertaining, and provocative. If you want
to start with the pictures, scroll to the end of this document. All the
photos were taken by me using portable equipment.
What is Kirlian photography?
Kirlian
photography is a method of “electrophotography” in
which high frequency electric current is used instead of light to
generate an image on standard forms of black and white or color film.
In the most basic setup a grounded device that generates approximately
a 40,000 volt pulse in the range of 50,000 hertz frequency is connected
to a copper plate upon which is placed a sheet of film, emulsion side
up. Objects can be placed on the film, or, in the case of human
subjects, a hand or fingertip can be placed on the film and an
electrophotograph can be made by applying the electric pulse (tnecessaryhe
length of time of the pulse can be varied) and then developing the film
(using standard developing procedures).
This
technique of photography was pioneered by two Russian scientists,
Semyon and Valentina Kirlian, working in the 1950s. The
electrophotographic images they produced showed what was described as
“the Kirlian aura effect”—a corona of
light (white,
shading into layers of dark blue, violet, and indigo). In the case of
human subjects and other life forms this image is believed to be a
record of the bioelectric field. The primary difference between organic
subjects and inorganic objects consists of the fact that the corona or
“aura effect” of inorganic objects does not change
(when
exposure times remain the same) whereas the coronas of organic subjects
like a leaf or a human fingertip change under different conditions
(with exposure settings kept the same). These differences have been
observed especially between pictures of “healthy”
(recently
picked) and “unhealthy” (torn or otherwise damaged)
conditions of the same leaf and also between the same human subject
under different states of emotional arousal (such as anger or elation).
Having
explored Kirlian photography as a hobby for many years,
especially in the early 1980s—the period during which most of
the
photographs below were taken—I have encountered some corona
evidence that could be construed as confirming effects relating to
changing emotional/physical states in human subjects. The exact nature
of the corona or “aura” being photographed is still
a
debated topic. Some who study the phenomenon of Kirlian photography
believe that it shows something that may be significant and that may
have important uses in the health sciences. Here is a brief excerpt
from the discussion of Kirlian photography by researchers Thelma Moss
and Kendall L. Johnson:
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In
examining the Soviet literature concerning Kirlian photography it
becomes quickly clear that the basic question, still unanswered, is:
what phenomenon is revealed by this radiation field photography? The
four principal [early] investigators of this topic in the Soviet Union
appear to be the inventors of the device, Semyon and Valentina Kirlian,
the Kazakh biologist V. M. Inyushin, and the Moscow biophysicist Viktor
Adamenko. In their two basic articles (Kirlian and Kirlian, 1958, 1961)
the Kirlians carefully describe their photography as a method for
“the conversion of nonelectrical properties of the object
being
photographed into electrical ones… with a direct transfer of
charges from the object to the photographic plate.”
V. M. Inyushin (1968), in a long
theoretical paper, has opted for the
term “bioplasma body” as descriptive of the
emanations and
internal structure of the objects photographed, quoting such
authorities on bioenergetics and bioectronics as Svent-Gyorgi and
Presman. In conversation with Inyushin, Moss learned that he conceives
of the “bioplasma body” as similar, if not
identical, to
the “aura” or “astral body” as
defined in Yogic
literature.
Adamenko (1970)—who as a boy
lived next door to the Kirlians, and
spent many years in intimate collaboration with them—sees the
photographs as demonstrating the “cold emission of
electrons” which can furnish pertinent and as yet unknown
information about the nature of organic and inorganic materials, in
particular, the nature of living organisms.
Many American scientists have
translated the phrase “cold
emission of electrons” into the more familiar
“corona
discharge,” and, as such, believe this photography reveals
nothing but a commonplace electrical phenomenon. A few critics have
taken the trouble to go to libraries in order to find earlier
investigators of this radiation field photography. They claim that
certain Germans, Czechoslovakians, or Americans were predecessors in
the discovery of “electrography,” pointing out that
these
investigators apparently thought so little of the discovery that the
work was not pursued…
[But] the question remains unanswered:
what does this photography
reveal—bioplasma or corona discharge? Clearly no scientist
should
be willing to take sides in such a controversy without serious study of
the issues involved, preferably with extensive research of his own.
[After conducting their own research
over several years, Moss and Johnson conclude]:
… it is clear to us that
radiation field photography reveals a
highly complex, perhaps still unknown phenomenon which may be linked to
Inyushin’s concept of the bioplasma body. It may even be
related
to the invisible energy system described in the voluminous literature
on acupuncture, and described in ancient Indian texts, such as the
Bhagavad Gita. Even if the phenomenon is “nothing
but” a
corona discharge, it would seem that the changes which occur in the
corona discharge under varying conditions would make this commonplace
phenomenon worthy of intensive study.
At the present time it is impossible to
draw any conclusions about this
research, except one. Whatever these pictures reveal—corona
discharge or bioplasma—the changes which have been observed
to
occur in organic materials demonstrate that a most interesting, still
undeciphered story is being told. And there lies the challenge.
Excerpt
from The Kirlian Aura: Photographing the Galaxies of Life.
Ed. Stanley Krippner and Daniel Rubin. New York: Doubleday and Company,
Inc. (Anchor Books Edition), 1974.
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Thelma
Moss (who died in 1997) went on to publish books on Kirlian
photography (1979, 1983) in which she appears to be convinced that
Kirlian photographs reveal much about the “bioplasma
body”
or the “bioenergy of the astral body.” Others have
criticized her for being duped by what is essentially the phenomenon of
ionized gas produced around an object containing some degree of
moisture when that object is in contact with a high voltage electrical
output (see, for example, www.skepdic.com/kirlian.html).
In a simple vacuum no ionization occurs and no image is formed.
Granting
this analysis, however, it is still difficult to account for
all the types of images produced by Kirlian photography. For example,
some subjects when photographed show bright corona fingertip images and
moments later, under varieties of emotional arousal or pain stimulation
(such as a shock or needle prick to the fingertip), show a break in the
corona or an absence of corona and the “red blotch”
effect
in its place (see images below). However, for an interesting
explanation for the red hue in Kirlian photographs see Andy’s
(Le
Magicien) Kirlian Photography Page at
www.geocities.com/lemagicien_2000/kfpage/falseimage/falseimage.html.
It
is also difficult to explain the different qualities of corona image
evident between “normal” states and states produced
after
drinking alcohol—differences characterized by sharp, clear
coronas versus hazy, milky coronas. These effects are fairly
predictable between subjects and between different instances and not
simply unique occurrences. Slight differences in moisture conditions
would not seem to be sufficient to account for these differences as
well as other consistent differences associated with meditative states
and acupuncture stimulation. In addition to the “moisture
climate” of its various surface parts, the state of the body
may,
for example, produce subtle variations of electrical conductivity at
particular points that may then affect the quality or intensity of the
“streamers” that emanate from it. This information
may
perhaps be correlated with various conditions relating to health and
emotional state. For more information on this aspect of the Kirlian
debate see the information at
www.kirlian.org/kirlian.htm.
All
things considered, I am not persuaded by the skeptics who believe
that the photographs show nothing deeply relevant to the biological
states of subjects nor am I persuaded by those who believe that the
images reveal some manifestation of the “astral
body”
supposedly associated with living beings. The truth may lie somewhere
in between. It seems clear that the photos reveal something that
requires a material medium (ionized gas) for the image to be
transmitted to a photographic plate. This does not preclude the
possibility that something relevant to the “bioenergy
system” of living beings can be observed in the images when
submitted to informed and methodic analysis. Such
“informed” analysis, however, still seems to be
something
yet to be reliably achieved and widely accepted.
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Other Kirlian Photography Claims and Interpretations
Photographs of human subjects, particularly fingertips
1)
Best procedure for
confirming an effect: take at least three photos of the same condition
(state of mind or body) within a period of seconds
2) No correlation has been found
between GSR and corona image
3) A thin, sketchy aura is regarded as
a sign of nervousness or anxiety
4) Alcohol tends to brighten and widen
the corona
5)No correlation has
been found between vasoconstriction or vasodilation and corona
6) No correlation has been found
between skin temperature and corona
7) Hypnosis generally produces
brighter, wider corona
8) Meditation generally produces
brighter, wider corona
9) Some subjects can voluntarily
increase brightness of corona
10) States of relaxation produce
brighter, wider corona
11) Some persons can produce the red
blotch by making themselves angry
12) Emotional arousal of various types
may produce the red blotch
13) Acupuncture
treatment dramatically increases corona width and brightness, depending
on the specific point being treated
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Corona
of tip of index finger
Subject normal
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Corona
of tip of index finger
Same subject several minutes later after two shots
of alcoholic beverage
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Example of red blotch effect
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Fingertip coronas of different female subjects
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Fingertip coronas of different male subjects
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