Kirlian Instruments - CANDIDO, Manoel

Kirlian Photography
A Tool for Psychic Research ?

Kirlian Instruments

Kirlian photography depends on the coupling of a high-voltage, high-frequency AC generator
(Tesla Coil) to a subject. This can be done in any one of three ways. The simplest form (Pict.1) places the object such as a leaf or coin, between parallel, capacitor-like, metal electrode plates, and separated by a small distance from a photographic plate. To photograph a human finger (Pict.2) the subject´s body is used as the second capacitor plate. A third arrangment uses a transparent electrode (Pict.3). If, for example, 30,000-100,000 volts are applied to the fingertips this would create a high voltage tension which can be discharged as an electrical corona.

Although the voltage potencial is high, the current is very weak. It takes a much stronger current to cause shock or electrocution. This can be illustrated by an analogy, for example. a river may have great depth (voltage) but little motion (current) and nonetheless it's quite pleasant to go swimming. On the other hand, even a relatively shallow river can be quite dangerous if a strong current.
In Kirlian photography we have a situation similar to a deep river having little motion - that is high voltage potencial and low current