Two fingertips.

A photo process that used a metal plate and electrical charge to take trippy, often spectral-looking pictures, Kirlian photography was thought at one point to perhaps be able to reveal the “auras” of its subjects. Could it read the mental states of people whose thumbs were photographed? Could it tell who was suffering from cancer before other tests could reveal the disease? No, it couldn’t. The process discovered by accident in 1939 by Semyon Kirlian, while oddly beautiful to look at, ultimately had no scientific application. Footage is from UCLA in 1974, when that university was heavily researching parapsychology.

From a 2010 Daily Bruin article about UCLA parapsychology research: “The phone calls would come in, and the voice on the other side would ask, ‘Do you believe in ghosts?’

This wasn’t a prank. It was an investigation of ghostly phenomena.

The year was 1968, and UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute was the new home for a controversial type of research – parapsychology.

Dr. Thelma Moss, a late psychology professor, headed the lab, which conducted scientific experiments in clairvoyance, telepathy and haunted houses until 1978.

‘It was a very exciting period of time. Things go in trends, and in the ’70s, there was a tremendous interest in parapsychology,’ said Kerry Gaynor, a former research assistant. ‘We were getting calls and letters every day. We were hearing about this kind of phenomena from all around the country and all around the world.'”