HUMAN ENERGY FIELD

Kirlian photography has long been relegated by the mainstream scientific community to the status of flaky pseudo-science. All this must change, however, with the advent of Dr Korotkov's revolutionary technology of Gas-Discharge Visualisation (GDV). The critical advance came with the use of CCD camera together with computer-processing in place of photography. It is now a simple matter to obtain reproducible and quantitative results immediately, without the need for dark room or messy photography. This book greatly extends his earlier "Aura and Consciousness" (1998), with descriptions of new technologies, procedures, software and much new data. Part I introduces the principles and general protocol, and the uses of the method in diverse fields. Some 14 colour plates give examples of bioelectrograms ("BEO-grams") from people in different states, together with their interpretation. (It has to be said that some of the features described are not too obvious to this reader).

Part II is concerned with some applications of the method in more detail. In medicine the finding that sectors of the finger images act as reflex zones corresponding to major organ systems is confirmed. While this can help in localising a problem in the person's energy field, it lacks direct relation to pathology, and so cannot be used for diagnosis of specific medical illness. On the other hand the changes in the image, usually within minutes of treatment, can be of great value in selecting therapies. For example, a study carried out in the US showed statistical differences in such changes between real and sham acupuncture. Results of a bioelectrographic study in bronchial asthma patients are presented in depth. Some very interesting work has been done on altered states of consciousness (ASC). In addition to the earlier studies on healers, this new work has looked at sportsmen in the state of intensively imagining their performance, and at a number of children participating in a programme of training in "direct vision". (Apparently it is not difficult to train both sighted and blind children to see without the use of eyes). A common feature of the ASC BEO-grams was to see some or all of the image separated from the finger: so-called "distant emission". In a few striking experiments pairs of volunteers, in close emotional relationship, were separated by up to hundreds of miles. At a given moment one was instructed to send love to the other. On the BEO-grams of each was seen a separate spot close to the sector in the little finger representing the heart – on the left for the sender and the right for the receiver.

Studies in progress make use of new technology which allows short video sequences to be recorded. This promises to yield much information that cannot be obtained with static images. For example, while the electrical stimulus from such a continuous sequence normally results in decline in the area of the image, in ASC it rises markedly.

Part III concerns itself with the scientific foundations. I guess few readers will want to work their way through the mathematics of the physical background – the more so as this part seems to be particularly bedevilled by "russisms" in the translation. It is important, however, that Dr Korotkov's pioneering work in this area has found publication in English. It leaves one in no doubt that we now have the outline of a firm scientific basis for the Kirlian effect, which will be available in this book until such time as others in the English-speaking world may want to take it up.

More familiar are the sections on mind-body physiology, and oriental philosophy and medicine. I found myself wanting an explanation of why the empirical reflex zones on the fingers do not correlate better with the acupuncture meridians, and also wanting better evidence that the GDV can directly measure the state of the chakras.

Fresh ground is broken where European and Oriental concepts of health are considered in terms of the principles of entropy and synergetics. Now that increasing use is being made of very low energy therapeutic modalities (homoeopathy, sound, laser, electromagnetic, etc.) it becomes all the more clear that the key concept is information. Thus it should make sense, as the author argues, to consider that a unique value may exist for the entropy of a person at a particular instant of time. Using probabilistic parameters for the BEO-grams, he has developed a software program relating to entropy. In fact this value does vary with age and state of health just as would be expected.

The chapter on fields takes off from a long tradition of Russian work, by such as Gurvich and Vernadsky, which is little known in the West. It considers holographic principles, and multi-level hierarchy of synchronisation of field structures, and how these are reflected in GDV bioelectrography. The remaining chapters are strictly practical, and deal with the use of the instruments and highly sophisticated software for various purposes.

It is abundantly clear from this book that "kirlionics", as it is sometimes called, is far more than merely another method. Nor is the book anywhere near being a definitive text. It gives more the impression of a preliminary exploration at the edges of a vast new paradigm. Moreover, having been to two of the annual conferences which Dr Korotkov organises at Saint-Petersburg, under the title "Science – Information - Spirit", I can say that the book covers only a fraction of the exciting work relating to GDV currently in progress - mainly in Russia.

While the book is well-reproduced, the writing could be made much clearer. One often wants more explanation; and many of the graphs would gain from better labelling of the axes.