Unreliability of the gas discharge visualization (GDV) device and the Bio-Well for biofield science: Kirlian photography revisited and investigated. Part II

Abstract

This is the second part of a research work to study the reliability of the Gas Discharge Visualization (GDV) device and the Bio-Well: These biofield machines, which are based on the Kirlian effect, were put to test in a Pranic Healing experiment. In the first part, the literature on Pranic Healing and Kirlian photography, as well as the functioning of the devices, were reviewed. In this second part, previous reliability studies on Kirlian photography devices are reported, explaining their negative results, and an original experiment is presented. The measurement variability and working of these technologies were investigated, evaluating their capacity to assess the energetic status of human beings and water. The experiment involved 40 participants: 20 Pranic healers and 20 non-healers. Healers performed a treatment on water, while non-healers simulated it; both groups were measured repeatedly before and after their real or sham performance; their water was measured as well and compared with controls. In the analysis, it was evaluated whether these Kirlian photography devices could return accurate, repeatable, and consistent information about the participants’ and water energy fields, allowing to detect potential subtle energy changes in the healer group compared to the non-healer one. The GDV-device and Bio-Well parameters showed large measurement variability and/or poor informative value, resulting inconsistent at detecting possible subtle energy variations in human beings and water. The findings of this research indicate that the GDV device and the Bio-Well may not be reliable tools for biofield science, and suggest that the literature related to these technologies should be revised and questioned.