PHOTOGRAPHING THE HUMAN SOUL.

Lake County Press, Issue 2051, 19 January 1905, Page 7

PHOTOGRAPHING THE HUMAN SOUL.

A discovery which may explain the supposed halos around the heads of the saints, and the singular power which certain persons have claimed to possess of seeing luminous emana- ; lions from the faces and bodies of I men and women, has recently been i made by Dr. Blondlot, of the Academy of Science, Baris, assisted by Dr Charpcntier and M. Gustave do Bon. It may bo that the discovery will throw that of radium itself info the shade. It is, in substance, that human beings, and apparently all living animals iu varying degree give off continuously a strange form of radium which is ordinarily invisible, but which can ho rendered visible in the dark by means of the properties of certain chemicals. If, for instance, a piece of cardboard smeared with phosphorescent sulphide of calcium is brought near to the human body in a dark room, it will glow with increased luminositv. A similar effect is produced upon glow worms and phosphorescent bacteria when they are subjected to the influence of the mysterious rays from n, living body. Strange to say, the power of this radiation seems to be increased by the activity of the mtiscales and nerves. ff the subject experimented on exercises hi.s muscles vigorously the phosphorescent screen grows brighter A similar increase of radiation is observed as a consequence of mental activity. If the subject speaks while the test-screen is held close to that part of the brain where physiologists have located the speech centre there is immediately an increase of light. The line of the spinal cord can be traced by its effect upon the phosphorescent screen. RAYS SHOOTING FROM THE BRAIN. It fact, there appear to be two forms of this newly-discovered radiation. One of those forms, called I.ho n-rnys, is excited by muscular action and pressure, ami it has ever j been found to exist, in non-living substances. The other form which is more penetrating, being able to pass through considerable thicknesses of metal, is thought by Dr. Charpcntier to originate only in the nerve centres of the living body. The brain is very active in Hie production of j those rays, and their intensity appears to be increased by mental of- i furl, on the part of the subject. If the attention is concentrated, if the subject thinks hard the effect is perceptible iu the brightening of the phosphorescent screen. This statement of the principles of the new discovery is sutficiont to show its bearings upon the question i of Hie visibility of halos referred to. | Neither Dr. Blondlot nor any of his ! associates professes to lie able to sec ; the emanation without the aid of a , phosphorescent screen. but there are I other persons, who, before this dis- | co very was made, have asserted their ability to see luminous pho.no- | menu about Hie heads and persons 1 of living people. Since we have now scientific proof of the existence of i rays proceeding from our heads and bodies which can be made visible by chemical means it does not seem al- ! together impossible that, to some ; peculiarly organised persons these j rays may be visible without the in- 1 lervention of such devices as those | employed by the French scientists. ; If ibis lie so, it may open up, stales Professor G. B. Serviss, u way to it scientific explanation of , mam things that have hitherto ap- | p.-ared to be altogether super-! natural and ittexplictdile on any phy- | . steal basis. The psychical state of : the subject appears to be reflected in the rays which lie gives oft’. In the stale of it subject possessing j great nervous power it. would naturally be expected that, the emanation 1 should he more potent than with! one having a less highly developed organisation. HALOS EXPLAINED. That quality in a man which we | call “ spiritual,” if developed to an extraordinary degree, might, manifest itself by a radio-activity proportioned to its intensity. I hen the existence of the halos, visible to some eyes at least, would be in ac- | cord both with what we know of the j psychic power of the persons who ; have been said to possess thorn, and , with the indications that Dr. Char- i ponticr’s researches give of the influence of the mind over the radiant energy of the brain. On Hie other ■ hand,' the fact that science has thus been unable to make these rays visjhle except indirectly through their .' effect upon a phosphorescent substance does not necessarily imply that son ns eyes may not he sensitive to them. There is a well-known instance of a man of recognised scientific attainments, Bacon von Beiehetibach. who insistent ly averred that he could see luminous rays about human beings shut up in a dark room, lie ascribed these rays to "hat ho called “ odic, force,” which he sup- ' posed to lie at the basis of mesmerism. Men of science have not al--1 itched much importance to Reichenbac.h’s testimony or to that of others, usually Spiritualists, who ' have claimed the possession of a similar power, but the discoveries of Blondlot anil his associates may reopen this question anti possibly lead to its solution.—“ Science Sittings.