Kirlian photography was invented by Seymon Davidovitch Kirlian. He was born on February 25 of 1898 in the city of Krasnodar, in the South of Russia. Seymon Kirlian could have been inspired and to have taken interest in the study of unusual and natural phenomena by a visit by Nikola Tesla to Yekaterinodar in 1917 where he gave a conference just before the 1917 revolution. Kirlian attended this conference and went away deeply impressed.

Seymon Kirlian used his experiences along with trial and error to verify the correctness of his own ideas, and coupled with his stubborn and laborious method of work, proved successful with the creation of a device for photography and visual observation by means of high frequency, high-voltage, low-current electricity.

His wife and comrade, Valentina Chrisanfovka, was educated in humanist studies and worked as literary assistant for a radio broadcasting committee.

After her marriage with Seymon Kirlian in 1930, Valentina Kirlian, also creative by nature, took part in her husband’s research and gradually began to read related specialized literature. Husband and wife differed in their approaches in the study of the natural phenomena, but these differences united them rather than separated them.

Seymon Kirlian was more interested in technical matters such as equipment or investigating characteristics of metals and non-conductors. Valentina Kirlian, on the other hand, was more intersted in the study of life processes.

Then In 1939, while repairing medical equipment used in d’Arsonval electrotherapy, Kirlian discovered that the electrical discharge between a vitrified electrode and particles of human skin changed colour. Trying to discover the cause of this, he photographed the electric charge without the use of a conventional camera, that is, exposing the film directly to the current.

This experiment led to the invention of a system of high-frequency electrical photography. During the next ten years of work at home and in the workshop where he repaired medical and other types of equipment, Seymon and Valentina Kirlian were repeatedly successful in photographing by means of high-frequency currents.

They devised a non-standard but simple apparatus, and in 1949 they received an "Author's Certificate" (Soviet patent for "A Method of Photographing by means of High-Frequency Currents").

Their simple device and the photographic method was completely revolutionary and unprecedented. Seymon and Valentina subsequently received hundred from letters from scientists and research institutes from all the parts from the Soviet Union.

Semyon Kirlian

Kirlian  photographs  are  electronic  images,   more  precisely, electronic  images created by "cold emission of electrons", or auto-electronic emission. The Kirlian method therefore allows the recording not only of the various biological states of plants and animals but also the psychical state of human beings.

This would produce results, for example, in fields such as the study of parapsychological phenomena traditional methods of research often seem impotent.

The difficulties encountered in the study of the "Kirlian Effect" are not limited only to electronic phenomena. Seymon and Valentina Kirlian had given great importance to the phenomenon of resonance in the photographs of high frequency electricity. An example of this is the "phantom leaf" phenomenon, which Seymon Kirlian himself initially refused to believe.

Victor Adamenko, his assistant, discovered this phantom effect in 1966 and Valentina Kirlian congratulated him with his discovery, but Seymon Kirlian flatly refused to believe in the authenticity of the strange photograph for many years. It was finally in his later years that be began to open up to their idea of the phantom leaf after many compelling conversations with Adamenko on the subject

In 1962, with the support of Valentina Kirlian, the once sceptical Seymon Kirlian began study of the psychic phenomena and in 1967 Seymon and Valentina had examined the hands of the healer Alekxei Kivorotov using their method. This was the first objective investigation of psychic healing in the Soviet Union.

Several hundred enthusiasts, from students of higher educational institutions to professors, are now studying Kirlian photography in the USSR.

An international association for study of the Kirlian effect unites many scientists of different countries. The broad development of this new field of science which could lead to a change in the way we look at the world and ourselves, would be a fitting memorial to those humble but persevering explorers of unknown extrasensory world - Semyon and Valentina Kirlian.

Transcribed from: Memories of Semyon Kirlian by Dr. Victor G. Adamenko, Ph. D., International Journal of Para physics, vol. 13, 1979.