Scientific Research

Mystics and sages throughout history have advocated the existence of an energy body, which is the pranic body in prana vidya. Over one hundred years ago Baron von Reichenbach, a German chemist, conducted extensive research on a form of energy which he called odic force, after the Norse god, Odin. Early in this century, Dr Walter substantiated these findings in his book The Human Aura. It was left to a Soviet scientist named Kirlian to confirm the existence of this energy with scientific precision.

An outstanding electrician, Kirlian was called in to repair some equipment at a research institute in Krasnodar in 1939. He watched the demonstration of a high frequency instrument used in electrotherapy, and noted the passage of electricity between the electrodes and the patient's skin. He decided that this would be interesting if it could be photographed, and devoted the rest of his spare time, money and energy to the development of high frequency photography. These photographs clearly indicate that the physical structure of living organisms possesses a field of energy related to the aura in mysticism and the pranic body in yoga.

This energy field is affected by sickness, emotion, cosmic and planetary influences, pain, and many other facets of mind influence. Kirlian research was intensified subsequent to 1960. Soviet scientists, as a result of this intensive research, now assert that an energy body or pranic body definitely exists. The implications of this assertion are vast, and have intensified Soviet search into parapsychology. Russian medical professors have affirmed the Kirlian claim that disease could be predicted.

Kirlian also photographed the transfer of energy from a healer to a patient. Authoritative scientific researches into the Kirlian effect have proved that the energy body revealed by Kirlian photography is a vibrating, colourful energy body which exists in all living things. It has shape and specific spatial organization. This energy body is in itself a separate, whole, unified organism, it determines the form of the physical organism; it is polarized, not chaotic, and if it disappears the organism is dead. These findings correlate with those of mystics, tantrics, and the Egyptian, Buddhist and Mayan Book of the Dead.

The Kirlian findings and their subsequent verification are an important and fascinating breakthrough in the field of psychic research. They establish to the scientific mind the efficacy of the claims of pranic healers.

It is even more interesting to find reference in this research to the influence of breathing upon this energy body. It has been substantiated that breathing charges the energy body and renews the reserve of vital energy, known in the east as prana, and helps to harmonize disturbances in the energy pattern. This establishes a direct ratio between the energy body and the physical body. Special exercises (such as pranayama and prana vidya) conducted by the physical body recharge, reinforce and restore harmony to the energy body. These exercises and practices, by energizing and restoring the harmony of the energy body, then have a cumulative and beneficial feedback to the physical body.

Kirlian photography research also established the efficacy of swara yoga, by establishing the influence of cosmic and planetary rhythms on the energy body. Swara yoga is the science of the effect of breath on the psyche, in relation to the cosmic and planetary rhythms.

Soviet scientists have used Kirlian photography to research into and verify pranic healing. A retired military officer, Colonel Alexei Krisorotov and a Georgian peasant, Comrade Kenchadza were the pranic healers subjected to intensive research. When conducting healing sessions, the colonel stands or sits close to the patient and passes his hands from the head down the body keeping them about five centimetres away from the body. Patients report heat generated from the colonel's hands. They also feel tremendous heat pouring from the afflicted area. The colonel states that he feels the heat radiating from the patient's body and often locates a diseased part by seeking the source of maximum heat. Tests indicate that this heat is psychic. No measurable change in actual skin temperature takes place. Using Kirlian photography, distinctive changes were noted between the phases of the healing method. Before, during and after sequences showed characteristic patterns of energy fields and energy flows. One characteristic was the focusing of the energy field in the form of an intense beam of light during the healing or transfer stage.

Kirlian photography is also able to differentiate pain, anger, exhaustion, fear and other forms of strong emotion. Changes in light, colour, and intensity were noted which were characteristic of certain emotional states. These changes in turn have been recorded clairvoyantly by mediums and mystics throughout history. The transfer of energy from healer to patient and the variety of characteristic emotional states as revealed in Kirlian photography have established these facets of psychic manifestation in the area of respectable scientific research in the USSR. Other interesting developments in the field of Kirlian photography have revealed that the flow and intensity of the energy in the body can be controlled, intensified and concentrated in specific parts of the body. The Russian scientists relate this to acupuncture and the science of kundalini. It can also be related to prana vidya.