The Unseen Self: Kirlian Photography Explained by Brian Snellgrove (book review)
For those who don’t know, if you put a light electrical charge across anything organic onto photographic paper, you can get what is described as a Kirlian or aura photograph. I’ve been sitting on this book, ‘The Unseen Self: Kirlian Photography Explained’ by Brian Snellgrove for a few years now, so moved it up my reading list as it isn’t a big read. You can’t ignore the evidence and even some really odd things, like a damaged leaf will show a complete aura, so something is going on.
Snellgrove references several books in the introduction ending up with me making reference to them and obviously mostly out of print or way too expensive. Makes it a bit difficult to check his references thirty years down the line.
Oddly, ‘corona discharge photography’ wasn’t actually discovered by Semyon and Valentina Kirlian but they did the most exploration with how a small electrical charge could give an aura around organic things. It was only the size of the photographic film that limited it to the hands and feet or, as with plants, leaves, where it ghosted parts removed.
I do have issues with Snellgrove of this leading into palmistry because it isn’t confined to the hands. The Kirlian effect results from the conductivity of the object and that depends on moisture and sweat. I’d probably give an interesting result simply because my hands tend to be mostly dry. What it represents to the palmist is purely incidental because there really aren’t any pointer connections, more like a spiky screen around the body.
Snellgrove gives an interesting point that early things like telephone were seen as cranky. Thing is they worked. The problem with Kirlian photographs is its only seen used for ESP and I’m interested for possibilities for my ‘Psi-Kicks’ stories. Thing is, other than give a glow or pass some of the aura to someone or something else, there is still nothing that you can see it being used for.
Its one of those odd things that is there but hasn’t really got a use yet. As you can tell, I don’t go along with all Snellgrove wrote here, it does happen, but should give you an introduction to the subject.
GF Willmetts
June 2026
(pub: The CW Daniel Company Ltd, 1979 revised 1996. 130 page illustrated indexed small enlarged paperback. Price: varies. ISBN: 0-85207-277-5)
