Walter John Kilner - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Walter John Kilner, M.D. B.A., M.B. (Cantab.) M.R.C.P., etc. (1847–1920) was a medical electrician at St. Thomas Hospital, London. There, from 1879 to 1893, he was in charge of electrotherapy

Electrotherapy

Electrotherapy is the use of electrical energy as a medical treatment In medicine, the term electrotherapy can apply to a variety of treatments, including the use of electrical devices such as deep brain stimulators for neurological disease. The term has also been applied specifically to the use of...

. He was also in private medical practice, in Ladbroke Grove

Ladbroke Grove

Ladbroke Grove is a road in west London, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is also sometimes the name given informally to the immediate area surrounding the road. Running from Notting Hill in the south to Kensal Green in the north, it is located in North Kensington and straddles...

, London.

He wrote papers on a range of subjects but is today best remembered for his late study The Human Atmosphere. In 1883 he became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians

Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

. In his spare time he was a keen chess player.

The Human Atmosphere

In 1911 Kilner published one of the first western medical studies of the "Human Atmosphere" or Aura

Aura (paranormal)

In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object . The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, it is said that all living things and all objects...

, proposing its existence, nature and possible use in medical diagnosis and prognosis. In its conviction that the human energy field is an indicator of health and mood, Kilner's study resembles the later work of Harold Saxton Burr

Harold Saxton Burr

Harold Saxton Burr was E. K. Hunt Professor of Anatomy at Yale University School of Medicine. His early years were spent in Springfield, Massachusetts, while most of his later life was spent in New Haven. In 1908 he was admitted to the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale and received his Ph.B. in...

. However, while Burr relied upon voltmeter

Voltmeter

A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring electrical potential difference between two points in an electric circuit. Analog voltmeters move a pointer across a scale in proportion to the voltage of the circuit; digital voltmeters give a numerical display of voltage by use of an analog to...

readings, Kilner, working before the advent of semiconductor

Semiconductor

A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...

technology, attempted to invent devices by which the naked eye might be trained to observe "auric" activity which, he hypothesised, was probably ultraviolet

Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays, in the range 10 nm to 400 nm, and energies from 3 eV to 124 eV...

radiation, stating that the phenomena he saw were not affected by electromagnets.

Glass slides or "Kilner Screens" containing alcoholic solutions of variously coloured dyes, including a blue dye called "dicyanin" (probably "Dicyanine A"), were used as filters in "Kilner Goggles" which, together with lights, were held to train the eyes to perceive electromagnetic radiation

Electromagnetic radiation

Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...

outside the normal spectrum of visible light. After being so trained, one could dispense with the apparatus. Kilner did not recommend merely viewing the subject through these lenses.

According to his study, Kilner and his associates were able, on many occasions, to perceive auric formations, which he called the Etheric Double, the Inner Aura and the Outer Aura, extending several inches from patients' naked bodies, and his book gave instructions by which the reader might construct and use similar goggles.

The only drawbacks to Kilner's method are the scarcity and toxicity of the chemicals he recommended. Later, Oscar Bagnall recommended substituting the dye pinacyanol (dissolved in triethanolamine

Triethanolamine

Triethanolamine, often abbreviated as TEA, is an organic chemical compound which is both a tertiary amine and a triol. A triol is a molecule with three alcohol groups. Like other amines, triethanolamine is a strong base due to the lone pair of electrons on the nitrogen atom. Triethanolamine can...

) but this dye is also not easy to obtain. Lindgren states that cobalt blue and purple glass may be substituted for the dyes used by Kilner and Bagnall.

Kilner's book was greeted with scepticism as well as enthusiasm but attracted the interest of Sir Oliver Lodge. In 1920 a revised edition of his book was published and sympathetically reviewed. Kilner's work was well-timed for the heyday of Theosophy

Theosophy

Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...

and his findings were incorporated into Arthur E. Powell

Arthur E. Powell

Arthur Edward Powell was a Theosophist whose books were published beginning in the early 1900s. He studied the major esoteric works of Helena Blavatsky, Charles Webster Leadbeater & Annie Besant.-Family Background:...

's book "The Etheric Double". Powell rightly made clear that Kilner had expressly differentiated between his own work and the clairvoyance and eastern systems of spiritualism.

The Human Atmosphere

See also