(7 of 10)
Others are less certain. Writing in the Photographic Society of America journal, Bill Zalud concluded, "All speculation hinges on obtaining photographs of normal tissue patterns for comparative purposes and, so far, no one has really determined what a normal Kirlian photograph is." Stanford Professor William Tiller, an enthusiast of the paranormal, is more assured about the technical cause of Kirlian phenomena on film. "What we're looking at," he maintains, "is cold electron discharge."
Sickly Tissue. Says L. Jerome Stanton, author of a forthcoming book on auras and Kirlian photography: "Perhaps some day the technique will be a valuable diagnostic tool. Maybe sick people do have different 'auras.' But as of now, there is no assurance that it is at all useful." Though not accusing Kirlian researchers of faking effects, Stanton notes that the famous "phantom leaf is easy to duplicate by double-exposing the film, first with the whole leaf, again after a portion has been removed, and that different voltages and conditions can change the picture in incalculable ways. "Working with advanced equipment," he says, "I could produce Kirlian effects that would astound the unsophisticated, and that includes a lot of scientists and physicists. Remember, electronics and photography are two very complicated fields. Mix them and all but the expert will remain in the dark."
The most irresponsible and odious niche in the world of the paranormal is occupied by the psychic healers, who cannot operate legally in the U.S. but lure unfortunate Americans overseas with claims of spectacular cures. Diagnosing illnesses and locating diseased organs by purely psychic means, they perform operations by plunging their hands through what appear to be deep incisions to grasp and remove sickly tissue.
In the Philippines, currently the center for psychic surgery, a number of conjurers use sleight of hand and buckets of blood and animal parts to work their wonders. Surrounded by adherents who have been "cured," the ill-educated and often filthy surgeons perform "operations"—slashes of the epidermis, knives in the eye cavity, fingers in the abdomen —sometimes painlessly and always with great flourish.
As one witness to such "surgery" describes it: "The healer pulled some tissue from the area of the 'operation' ...
I literally grabbed the 'cancerous tissue' from Tony's hand ... I wanted to have valid medical tests performed on it. The tests, conducted in Seattle, showed that the tissue was 'consistent with origin from a small animal ... there is no evidence in any of this tissue to suggest that this represents metastatic carcinoma from the breast of the patient.' " Tom Valentine, author of a book on perhaps the best known of the psychic surgeons, Tony Agpaoa, documents the experience of a Mrs. Raymond Steinberg of Two Rivers, Wis. Tony "made a major production" of removing a piece of metal and several screws that had been surgically placed in her hip after an automobile accident. X rays later showed that Agpaoa had removed nothing.
True Believer. But the psychics, and those who profit from them, remain undaunted. In a few months, the