Researchers at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan are conducting an investigative project in search of the existence of jinn — loosely, genies or spirits from early Arabian, and later, Islamic mythology and theology — and they’ve got a machine they say will help them.

Seven UMK professors, led by Associate Professor Dr Yohan Kur Niawan, began their study after purchasing an electronic device from the United States, which they believe can detect so-called auras in the human body.

The machine set the study back RM15,000 (US$3,700), but is a necessary tool, says Dr Yohan, who is originally from Indonesia. He claims the machine is precisely the scientific *COUGH* device that the team needs to detect changes in the body’s electric field when various Islamic variables are introduced. These include traditional music and readings from the Quran.

Aura photography and imaging, which have long been pooh-poohed within the scientific community, was a concept first introduced in 1939 by Semyon Kirlian, a Russian scientist who was toying with a photographic plate. Kirlian claimed to have accidentally discovered that placing an object on the plate, while connected to a voltage source, produced an image that shows the object surrounded by mysterious, colorful energy.

What Kirilian photography actually shows is undetermined, and its usefulness remains uncertain, short of being the starring feature of a Gwyneth Paltrow new age, GOOP road show.

While acupuncturists, chi-channelers, some doctors and a group of researchers at UMK believe that these auras can have real-world applications, most of the scientific community points out that the “auras” do not exist in a vacuum, and are simply the interaction between electricity and particles on the subject’s skin and surrounding air. The notion that machines can read “emotions” has also been dismissed by pretty much every mainstream scientist.

Aural camera-makers have faced strict guidelines in the US when it comes to making claims of healing or diagnoses of illness, but have managed to skirt around those guidelines by promising their cameras are only used for viewing “the spiritual aura state.”

Dr Yohan says so far that the machine has proved to be only 80%-90% accurate (yes, only); however, he hopes that by continuing the study over the next two years, he will be able to contribute to solving disorders carried by those who are infected with jinn.

Somewhere, in the deepest recesses of the universe, sitting next to Xenu, and wondering how to rid the galaxy of our collective thetans, L. Ron Hubbard is intrigued with these developments.

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