The Shroud of Turin

SHROUD OF TURIN

An Imprint of the Soul,Apparition or

Quantum Bio-Hologram

CHIDAMBARAM RAMESH

2010

i

Table of conTenTs

Illustrations vAcknowledgements viiDisclaimer viiForeword ixPreface xiPART - I 151. The Challenge of the Shroud 172. Mystery in its History 24

Hungarian Pray Manuscript 30Sudarium Christi or the Face Cloth of Christ 32

3. Shroud under the Microscope 334. Words that the Blood Speaks 395. Mystery, but a Comprehensive Mystery 44

Photonegative character 45Spatial dimension encrypted 46X-ray like image 46Superficiality and Minimum viewing distance 47No directionality 47Foreign objects endemic to Jerusalem found 47Anatomical Accuracy and Forensic Examination 49Human DNA 49Nailing the Wrists Not the Palms 50

6. Three-Dimensionality: An Aura of the Original 517. C14 Dating - Square Peg in a Round Hole 568. Human Radiation and Other Theories 61

Scorch Theory 61Radiation Theory 62Traversable Lorentzian wormhole 64Nuclear Radiation 67Dr. Petrus Soons’ Holographic Findings 67Isabel Piczek’s Quantum theory 68Discrete energy values 71

9. A ‘Snapshot’ of Resurrection? 73

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PART - II 7710. Forgotten Science of Palingenesis 79

Alchemical Palingenesis 81Paracelsus – First to mention Palingenesis 83Du Chesne’ account – Proof of Bodily Resurrection 84Jacques Gaffarel’s account of Palingenesis 84Kircher and the Imperial Secret 86Disraeli – Vegetable Phoenix 88Browne - Finger of God makes Sensible Structures 89Ole worm and Langlot’s formula of Palingenesis 90Ebenezer Sibly’s detailed Account of Palingenesis 91An Incident of Human Palingenesis 94Father Schott: Sparrow Revived in a bottle 96Abbe Vallemont: Not a solid body but an apparition 97Otto Tachenius: Acid-Base Reaction 99The Monk-alchemist Ferarius 100Oetinger and Biblical Promise of Resurrection 100Ice Palingenesis: Imprint of Images in Ice 102Carl Linnaeus’ encounter with palingenesis 103Digby’s Palingenesis of Nettles 104

11. Natural Magic – Practical Part of Science 107Indian Alchemy: Show of Snakes 108Pliny’s Catalogue of Wonders and Albert Magnus 110Moreau de Vautour: House full of Serpents 111William of Auvergene’s Liber Vaccae 112Miscellaneous Folk-magic Accounts 114

12. Proof for Soul’s Existence – Watters 118

PART - III 12113. Magic of Quantum Reality 12314. Holography: How it Articulates the Aesthetic Message 12615. Biological Blueprints 131

Dela Warr’s Images and Benford’s Findings 135Kirlian phantom leaf effect 138DNA Phantom Effect 140Holographic transmission of bio-information 144Morphogenetic fields 146

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PART - IV 14916. Shroud Image vis-à-vis Holography 151

Photo-negativity – A pseudoscopic effect 151Three-Dimensionality: a trait of Bio-hologram 156Superficiality of the image 158No Directionality 159Optimal Viewing Distance: 160Half-tone effect and the Dehydration of linen 161Mechanically Transparent’ Man is a Hologram! 162

17. Conclusion 165Bibliography 170

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v

I l l U s T R a T I o n s

Ventral and dorsal images on the Shroud of Turin1. Negative image (frontal view)2. Negative image (dorsal view)3. A 16th c. painting attributed to Giovanni Battista della Rovere4. Hungarian Pray Manuscript from the Budapest National Library5. ‘L’-shaped holes in the Pray Code manuscript 6. ‘L’-shaped holes in the Turin shroud7. Face image: Photographic positive and negative image8. Image showing forearms and nailing in the wrists9.

Face image on the Shroud with clear bloodstains10. Kai’s Bryce software reveals depth-information11.

3-D image after using a Warp filter12. First 3-D Shroud image made in 1976 with NASA computer13. 3-D image of Shroud man14. Enhanced VP-8 Emulator Relief of Face15. 3-D relief image of Shroud man16.

Edward Hall (Oxford testing laboratory) and Michael Tite (British 17. Museum)

Picture depicting a wormhole18. A Laboratory showing how a simple spirit may be extracted to 19.

present flowers and herbs in full bloomAnimal Palingenesis: A resuscitated sparrow20. A Resuscitated Rose - from Vallemont’s Curiositez de la Nature21. Holographic Recording Process22. Holographic Reconstruction Process23. Dela Warr image of a foetus 24. Dela Warr photograph was created with the usage of a VP-8 25.

analog analyzerDela Warr photograph was created with the usage of 26.

Bryce4® softwareCut-leaf and its Kirlian image placed side-by-side27. Cut-leaf is positioned directly on top of its first Kirlian photo28. DNA phantom - the discrete replica like structure of the DNA29. Picture revealing the 5-fold fine structure of the band like image 30.

of DNA

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vii

acknowledgemenTs

Many people have helped bring this book to fruition. Chief among them are: Mr. Barrie M. Schwortz, Official Documenting photographer of STURP, Dr.Marina Shaduri, PhD, Head of the Centre of Bioholography, Tbilisi, Georgia, Dr. Matti Pitkänen of Finland, Nigel Kerner, renowned author, Paolo Di Lazzaro, Chairman of the International Workshop on the Scientific Approach to the Acheiropietos Images, Italy, Deacon Peter Schumacher, Director, Shroud Exhibit and Museum (SEAM) Inc., Alamogordo, New Mexico, Dr.Petrus Soons of Panama and Dr.R.P.Bajpai, Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, India. I record my very sincere thanks to them. I am especially grateful to Joseph Marino, a long-time Sindonologist, who spent his valuable time and expertise to correct and edit the first manuscript. Also, a note of thanks is due to my friend Bhuvana Narayanan who provided valuable advice and encouragement throughout the preparation of this book. Librarians at several institutions aided my efforts patiently. Without listing them all, I must at least thank those at the University of Chicago Library Service, and those at the Madras Institute of Developmental Studies, Adyar, Chennai. I have, of course, stood on the shoulders of many ancient authors. The works are theirs; I have only collected them and tried to bring them into the realm of current science. To all such authors whose writings I have made liberal use of, I would once more express collectively, and with all sincerity, my great sense of indebtedness. Last, but not the least, I would like to thank my parents and my sister for all their love and support. They have worked very hard to provide me the opportunity to obtain the best possible education and knowledge.

dIsclaImeR

This book is intended to provide a scientific explanation to the mysterious image on the Holy Shroud of Turin and if the explanations offered in the book hurt in any way the religious sentiments of the readers directly or indirectly, I, as the author, apologise to the readers. Use of words like phantom, apparition etc., to connote the resurrected body of Christ is not invidious. If such terms offend, readers are requested to substitute more acceptable phraseology in their place. The reproduction of illustrations, or the borrowings of quotations, does not necessarily mean that the respective authors agree with the ideas contained in this book.

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The isolated knowledge obtained by a group of specialists in a narrow field has in itself no value whatsoever, but only in its synthesis with all the rest of knowledge and only inasmuch as it really contributes in this synthesis

something toward answering the demand; who are we?

Erwin Schrödinger, Science and Humanism (1952)

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foRewoRd

Dr.Petrus Soons3-D Shroud Researcher

A year ago Chidambaram Ramesh contacted me by mail asking questions about the 3-D work that we had been doing the last 5 years on the image of Jesus Christ on the Shroud of Turin, resulting in the production of a series of holograms of the body. We have been in regular contact ever since and he sent me the draft of the manuscript of this book and later asked me to write a foreword to this work.

If you take on yourself to write about the image-formation mechanism of the image of the Man of the Shroud, you stand on many shoulders. Many scientists and non-scientists have tried to find an explanation for the image-causation mechanism, but until now nobody has been able to answer this riddle.

Mr. Ramesh walks the unconventional path and gives us a solid basis for this by explaining the image formation mechanism to a process that is much like Palingenesis, which is the resuscitation of plant-images from their ashes. In Palingenesis, the decomposed parts of organisms display the corporeal “hologram”-like phantom image of the entire organism they constitute. It is reconstruction of the whole from the parts which is very similar to holograms where the parts contain the whole.

Going a step further, quantum holography that operates at the atomic level works on the same principle as conventional holography does and is able to explain the phenomenon of Palingenesis as a quantum holographic pattern that is entirely characteristic of the object in question. The writer gives a series of examples that show unequivocally that all biological organisms are basically quantum holograms and are connected with each other and with a universal holographic quantum field.

In the last chapter of his book, Chidambaram Ramesh gives us his explanation how this holographic 3-D quantum matrix of the body of Jesus Christ could have projected itself onto the surface of the Shroud linen, creating the image of Our Lord Jesus on the Shroud. He gives us

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also an explanation of some of the very specific characteristics of the Shroud image, the photographic negativity and the built-in body-to-linen 3-D information in the grayscale of the image that ought to be explained by anybody who proposes a new image-formation mechanism.

When you reconstruct a hologram from the master-hologram, it produces a real and virtual image of the object in 3-D. A copy of the virtual image is always positive. A contact copy of the real holographic image however, is a “negative” image as we can observe in the Shroud image. Photographs of quantum holographic manifestations as recorded for example by Dela Warr’s device show spatially encoded 3-D information when subjected to the Bryce Program or VP-8 Image Analyzer, and this is what we can observe in the Shroud image also. Another series of specific Shroud image qualities like the non-directionality, superficiality and the half-tone effect can also be explained with this quantum holographic idea.

The ideas in this book are a challenge to our intellects. It is like Chidambaram Ramesh says in the end of his book. If it is not the final solution to the Shroud mystery then at least it can serve as a feed for further thought on the subject and stimulate a new generation of Shroud researchers.

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PReface

I scantly remember a street magic show I once enjoyed in my boyhood. The performer conjured images of a scorpion on a screen by lighting up an oil-lamp. The images were corporeal and, behold, three-dimensional! Though such street shows were common in those days, they were thought to be in the nature of some sort of trick. Being young, the incident made me curious. Later, after a couple of decades, I came across a vernacular book on folk-magic illustrating a method for exhibiting scorpion images. It explained; a scorpion put inside a coconut and buried in horse-dung for forty days, will yield a spirit, which if lighted with a cotton wick, would produce images of scorpions as far as the light reaches. This caught my attention and my mind raced with possibilities. During my second year of graduation in Mechanical Engineering, I got introduced to the wonderful optical phenomenon of holography. Considering the ‘corporeality’ and ‘three-dimensionality’ of the objects displayed under holography, my mind, as quickly as a flash, contemplated a viable holographic connection to the scorpion images displayed in the folk magic.

Afterward, the idea of alchemical palingenesis – resuscitating spectral images of plants and flowers from their ashes – induced my curiosity further. I made an extensive study of almost all the available literature relating to this strange and marvellous phenomenon. Given the nature of the 3D images as described in the processes, I could easily infer it is a form of holographic field making a vortex of subtle ash particles, which in turn makes visible the exact pattern of the plant inside the phial.

This being so, certain factors reinforced my belief that these ‘miraculous images’ would have scientific significance. First, how our bodies and other organic entities are formed has always been a baffling question of developmental biology. The conventional genetic theory failed to explain satisfactorily how genes code information about the morphology of organism. Structural complexity of the genome is insufficient for organism development. Ninety per cent of the DNA in humans and mice is the same and there are enormous parallels between human DNA and that of

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a housefly. Likewise, the amount of DNA in some species of amoebae is about 30 times as large as that in humans. If so, how can the DNA alone account for the complicated structural formation in organisms? Besides the genetic means, there should be some mechanism to guide the physical constitution of organisms.

Second is the phenomenon of regeneration. If the whole head of a snail is cut off, a new head grows out of the body as complete in all its parts as the previous one. Why have many animals the power of regenerating amputated members? How is that when the tail of a lizard is torn off, a new one sprouts in its place? There should be, I wondered, some sort of pre-existing substratum, as upon a model, to guide the atoms and molecules during the entire process of regeneration, and each cell should be well aware of the blueprint – whole within the parts (a substratum - superstratum relationship)!

Third, there are umpteen ideas and theories, both ancient and contemporary, to suggest that morphological development of our body is more ‘structure-related’ than ‘chemistry-related’. Starting from the almost forgotten theory of Preformation 1, down to the latest findings of ‘Hox genes’ which display spatial collinearity 2, there has always been a ‘structure-based concept’ wherever attempts are made to explain morphological development. A precise blueprint of the body is hypothesized to guide the process of bodily development.

These facts led me to believe that there are some subtle morphogenetic field patterns to guide the architectural development of organisms; and the 3-dimensional images we see in the natural magic and palingenesis are nothing but some form of subtle patterns made somehow visible to physical perception.

It was during the course of my scientific pursuit of these wonderful phenomena of nature that I unexpectedly came across the Shroud mystery. I could observe and discover a close resemblance between the phenomenon of 3D image creation in the natural magic (in the case of palingenesis also) and the 3-dimensionally encoded image in the Shroud of Turin. I thought the underlying science of these natural phenomena, if explored, would offer a working hypothesis to coordinate and explain the puzzling image on the Shroud of Turin. Another matter that reinforced my ideas is the nature of the ‘Resurrection body’ of Jesus Christ. Whether the Resurrection body was a materialistic one with ‘flesh and blood’ or

1. Preformation Theory maintained that the adult animal is already preformed or pre-existed in either the sperm or the egg.2. The correspondence between the order of Hox genes on the Chromosome and their domains of expression.

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a spiritual one has been a long-lasting and great difference of opinion in Christendom. Many contend that the body of Jesus was the spiritual body – and, though most real of all substantial things, it was an ‘appearance’ from the physical standpoint. Thus, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ has close linkage with the phenomena of palingenesis – the spectral resurrection of plants.

Now, one might be tempted to ask whether these play-like phenomena, even if assumed to have scientific basis, can resolve the long-lasting mystery that enshrouds the Shroud of Turin. I will not say this would put to rest the mystery wrapped in the Turin Shroud. A non-professional like me should not rush to conclusions on issues on which experts in the fields are still unclear. Nevertheless, I trust my propositions would certainly give a good start in the right direction.

Then again, there is a fear in a corner of my heart that my propositions in this book could easily be thrown out in no time by a group of people who arrogate themselves as the sole representatives of the official science, and who would be pleased to regard what others speak of as ‘unscientific’, or simply lable it as ‘pseudo-science’. Yet, the strength of my belief goads me to think that science has a real surprise for the skeptics!

As Einstein rightly said ‘the most beautiful and the most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical’. Natural magic is nothing other than unexplained phenomena of science. This, superficially viewed, may appear to be impossible and hallucinatory, but should to be considered in a scientific perspective. Phenomenon of natural magic is a manifestation of science. In the words of Francis Bacon, ‘natural magic is the science which applies the knowledge of hidden forms to the production of wonderful operations; and by uniting activities with passives, displays wonderful works of nature.”

As regards the mysterious image on the Shroud, it is a common proposition that no ancient artistic technique could have been able to imprint the 3-dimensionally encoded human figure on the Turin Shroud with anatomical and circumstantial exactitude. Recent discoveries in quantum science come in as a potent aid in elucidating remarkable facts on the subject. I theorize that the formation of 3D images of plants and animals in the magnificent phenomena of palingenesis is also the work of quantum holographic processes and that these evidential proofs can help in the unravelling of the mystery wrapped in the Shroud.

The principal objectives of this book are:

To provide a concise form of Shroud history �To outline some of the important characteristic features of Shroud �

image that warrant scientific analysis

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To provide several evidences largely drawn from the alchemical �and natural magic genre, in support of 3-dimensional image formation from the bio-matter of decomposed animals and plants

To make a scientific analysis of the phenomenon of 3-D image �formation in nature with regard to the latest findings in the quantum realm

And to correlate it to the 3-dimensionally encoded image imprinted �in the Shroud of Turin.

The chapters of this book can be broadly grouped under four main parts. The first part makes a brief survey of the documented history of the Turin Shroud, how the Shroud got its scientific lure, major tests conducted on it and results thereof, and finally the astonishing characteristics of the Shroud image revealed to the world thanks to major scientific studies and researches.

Part two takes the readers to an entirely different field of knowledge – the forgotten science of resuscitating spectral plants from their ashes (palingenesis) and natural magic. They are full of amazing ‘hard-to-find’ information relating to visual manifestation of 3D images of plants and animals from their decomposed phlegm.

Part three serves to explain how the various discoveries of science, especially those in the quantum realm, are pointing more and more to a ‘holographic field’ where matter is guided by commonly invisible energy templates. It also offers to explain in a simple way what a hologram is, its optical characteristics etc., as per classical science.

Finally, in Part four, attempts have been made to make a proper synthesis of all the three, viz., Shroud image, 3D images forming out of decomposed parts of plants and animals and the idea of quantum holographic field patterns. The theory is simple: the spectral 3D images manifest from the decomposed phlegm of animals and plants are nothing but their ‘quantum holograms’ and similar quantum holographic manifestation of physical body was responsible for the imprint of the mysterious image on the Shroud of Turin. A detailed comparison between the characteristics of Shroud of Turin and those of holograms is made out in chapter 16.

The hour is close upon us when we shall commence our retrospect of one of the most wonderful theories of the past – the theory of palingenesis, and the investigation of one of the oldest mysteries of humanity – the image on the Shroud. If you’d like to write to me, my home and e-mail addresses are on the back of the title page. I promise to respond to all of you who communicate. In the meantime, I hope you find this book informative and interesting and I thank you in advance for taking the time to read it.

Do enjoy the book!

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17. Conclusion

I admit there is mystery in the resurrection; but there is no impossibility. I do not see one bit more difficulty in bringing a resurrection body out of a dead and corrupt body in the grave, than in bringing the bright fragment blossom

of a rose out of a dry, ugly, and repulsive root

John Cumming (1855)

We have now come to the end of our inquiry, our survey of the problems connected with the puzzling Shroud image, and the attempts to solve it. It may be helpful at this juncture just to draw a few threads together.

It has been pretty firmly established by various researchers that the Shroud is not a painting in any known sense of the term. When taken in concert certain conclusive facts about the Shroud – it conforms to the Gospel accounts, anatomically perfect, light and dark are reversed, extremely superficial, there is no mark of paint or brush strokes, fibres of the cloth were not cemented together by any foreign material, depth information of the image has been encoded three-dimensionally, occurrence of high level of bilirubin in the bloodstains, abundance of microscopic dust in the foot-area of the imprint, to name a few – these are enough to make even a skeptic believe in the natural causes of Shroud image. But science does not rely on ‘collaborative evidences’ but requires empirical tests and concrete results of proofs. The clear recognition of this fact will enable one to avoid certain dialectic confusions. The study on the Shroud image made so far offers clues in plenty to arrive at its cause.

At any rate, the Shroud cannot be a hoax. In order for this inscrutable image on the Shroud to be a fraud, the prankster could not have managed with any mammal blood, but would have had to use real human blood to bring realism. He would have had to possess a high degree of not only anatomical and medical knowledge but also of great Gospel knowledge to defraud. These factors, though not likely, are of course feasible, and the hands of a fraud could not be ruled out on these grounds alone. But the

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balance of probabilities leads us to the solid and irrefutable conclusion that the image cannot be a fake.

Why would a forger take tremendous pains and be clever and ambitious to produce a fake image on the Shroud is a million dollar question that nobody has yet been able to explain. Did he opt to strain every nerve just for the sake of fooling humanity? No faker would have foreseen that his work ought to have met anatomical exactitude, biblical narrations, scientific inquiries etc., for no intellect of his time would have been able to comprehend such latent details. Even assuming he attempted this out of passion, how could he have envisioned the idea of ‘negative image’ or a painting with reverse shade, and executed it as back as in the 14th century? How could he have incorporated the image intensity versus distance correlation into the Shroud image? How could he have ensured that the impression of the image did not penetrate a depth less than 1/100th of a hair?

Now, even assuming all these queries can somehow be explained, there are still questions hanging over such an assumption of a faker. How could he have been able to bring in the X-ray effect amazingly in the case of hands, where one could easily observe metacarpal bones and phalange bones of each finger? What could have made the pollens grains, endemic to Palestine region, appear on the Shroud? Who could have brought the samples of limestone on the Shroud from Jerusalem? And, as Stevenson commented, if the Shroud was a creation of the Middle Ages, then its forger must have ordered the mites to go with it! Hence, by no stretch of imagination can it be concluded that the Shroud image was a human object d’art.

Having arrived at the fact that the Shroud could not be a work of human, there are some questions in connection with it that one may fairly ask. How did the Shroud image happen or what caused it to happen? Is it a candid work of Nature or work of Providence? If a work of Nature, is it governed by the known laws of Nature or science? Or, if it relates to the recondite regions of current science, can it be understood with the aid of contemporary science?

Many researchers have attempted to connect the Shroud image to the Resurrection of Jesus. But such assumptions, if viewed in isolation, are totally speculative views of theology. A parallel phenomenon of Nature which could be able to attest the resurrection phenomenon is the resuscitation of plants from ashes, or palingenesis. It, as we have seen thus far, is a marvelous phenomenon of Nature, capable of revealing to the world the three-dimensional, otherwise imperceptible, subtle body underlying the material body of organisms. Palingenesis makes it more