17 years old - Kirillian Photography, Aura.

I was still working in my dark room. I’d taken baby pictures and portraits to up grade the enlargers and processors.  I was still only working in black and white.

Linda Laidlaw was at the University of Manitoba in the psychology department.  She was doing Kirlian Photography experiments.  People at the time were trying to capture the ‘aura’ of individuals. Obvious we give off ‘energy’ as humans and this ‘energy’ matrix is part of the overall sense of self. The issue was always how to document this phenomena for the skeptics and insensitive who tended to concrete thinking.

Kirk asked me if I’d put some unexposed films and photographic paper in a sealed light proof photographic envelope. I was happy to do that. What was exciting was that they were having a yogi visualize a lighted building with this camera film in sealed envelopes.  I got them back. They were untampered with.  I was the external agent unrelated with the experiment. Still the hair stood up on the back of my neck when I saw the black and white rectangular pattern appear in my processing fluids. I don’t have an answer.  There are believers and there are non believers. Years later I’d read Mario De Beuregaards , Spiritual Brain and enjoy his in depth discussion of the pseudoscience of the closed minded folk who no amount of proof would sway.  I just keep being overwhelmed by beauty and genius of the universe.  

It did seem that as adolescents we were more receptive to things outside the box. Later people actually made money big time off denying God and telling everyone in detail what God had told them.  I was glad that I knew plants were sentient before lots of ‘modern’ folk did. It’s probably a Celtic thing. My mother and others thought me Fay in a positive way.

I loved reading about Findhorn back then. I loved watching plants and flowers respond to the love and care my mother and brother gave them.  When you factored out arrogance and pride there were an infinite number of possibilities.  I think as adolescents our brains were opening and closing, expanding and contracting consciousness naturally.

I’d still not have done drugs back then.  Woodstock would be a major advertisement for marijuana and White Rabbit would speak of acid but that all came later.  In high school I got drunk once and didn’t do drugs. I did think I saw aura’s some times. I never heard voices.  I just seemed to feel things and sense things before others did. I’d step out of the way and a car would crash into the wall beside me. I’d be interested later in confabulation and even later in time and perception. At this time. I just liked these things.  Wow was the word used equally for subjective phenomena and objective phenomena.  I’d later read a great book on the sacred and be sad by the loss of joy in the modern world as the dark forces gained control and God and Jesus were being persecuted anew.

I’d go on to be the Year Book Photographer and take pride in the fact most of the non portrait and non team shots were taken by me. Eventually I go on to be the freelance photographer for the Fort Gary Lance.