Kirlian Photography Material Science, Testing and Ichnology

Abstract

Until recently Kirlian photography was used primarily to record effects generated by the application of electrical energy to living tissue and preserving the attendant phenomena on light sensitive film (see Hyzer, 1974). The resulting patterns and colors were interpreted as symptomatic of the status of the parent organism in terms of its quality of life (Aaronson, 1974). The effects of the interaction between life processes and electricity were considered to be inexplicable in terms of established scientific principles; our research suggests that this pessimistic view may no longer be tenable.

Kirlian photographs taken of “wafers” cut from fossiliferous rocks exhibit patterns and colors similar to those produced from living organisms or near relatives. Investigations into the probable cause of a phenomenon herein called a red “hotspot,” which occasionally appears in fossilized tracks, trails and burrows (=ichnofossils) of organisms long-extinct, produced results which suggest that the Kirlian phenomenon may related to the preservation of their chemical residuum, its spacial orientation and carbon content.