“The effects obtained by Semyon D. Kirlian, a Soviet electronic scientist working in the mid 20th century, did not result in a photograph of the aura surrounding living beings, as is commonly thought, but probably showed a secondary manifestation of this radiation.

To be more precise, this effect may arise from the interaction produced between the subject’s body and the light source to which it is subjected at the moment the photograph is taken. If valid, the experiments performed by Kirlian may nonetheless serve to demonstrate that all living beings possess an energizing body within their physical envelope”

A History of Kirlian Photography

If nothing else, the writers of these monographs are well-versed in the art of psychological manipulation. Even as they cast doubts over the authenticity of a fellow school of occultism, they embrace its findings as their own, integrating them without question into their pre-established philosophy.  Through this technique, they’re able to claim ownership of all the knowledge provided by Kirlian photography, while still positioning the Rosicrucian Order AMORC as a more comprehensive source of learning.

Kirlian photography was discovered by a Russian electrical engineer by the name of Semyon Davidovitch Kirlian in 1939. Much like other breakthroughs, Kirlian’s discovery came completely by chance. While processing images one day, Kirlian noticed that when he passed photographic plate through a high energy field, the resulting image resulted in a colored halo-like glow around the object photographed. Immediately Kirlian declared that he had captured conclusive proof of a supernatural human energy field.

Although Kirlian’s claims were initially laughed off by scientists in the Russian community, over time pseudoscientific publications began to give credence to his wild theories. By the 1960s, Kirlian was being hailed as a great discoverer, and both European and American journalists were championing his theories.  According to the Kirlians who championed his devices, Kirlian’s photographs could be used to predict everything from emotional and physical distress, to serious illnesses. 

For groups like Rosicrucian Order AMORC, the images produced by Kirlian’s devices showed incontrovertible proof of the existence of acupuncture meridians in the body.