The Holy Shroud of
Q. Does the Holy Shroud of
Q. Is this Shroud the
authentic burial shroud of Jesus Christ?
Q. What is
the nature of the image on the Shroud? How did the image of a dead man’s body
get transferred onto a linen cloth?
Q. What are
the scientific facts?
Q. What are
the scientific implications?
This website is dedicated to
providing current, comprehensive answers to such questions.
CONTENTS
Shroud Research
1898-1988 Since 1898, research on the Holy
Shroud from a great variety of approaches
such as history, anthropology, archaeology, theology, physics and
chemistry, photography, forensic
science, numismatics, iconography, medicine, botany, biology and so on, has
all tended to point to its
authenticity as the true burial shroud of Christ, dating from around 33
A.D., and as described in the accounts of the passion, death and
resurrection of Christ in the New Testament.
§
Current Update (Feb /07 ) Scroll down
§
Links
to Other Shroud Websites
§
The ‘Side
Strip’ on the Shroud
· The Shroud Image and
Radiation
· Properties of a Universal Wave Field (UF)
(Nov/05)
·
A Logarithmic Scaling of the Cosmic Time
Events to Base Seven
·
Cosmology
of a Binary Universe (April/07) New
· The Soul/Body Problem:
An Exploratory Reassessment New
· Cosmology of a Binary
Universe Part II: Evolution of Complexity;
1989 Radiocarbon Dating Doubts
From
1989 to around 2000, the scientific and scholarly interest in the Shroud has
been dominated by a dispute over a radiocarbon dating of the Shroud carried out
in 1988, which asserted that the Shroud was of mediaeval origin, dating from
the period 1260-1390 A.D., thus completely contradicting the great mass of
evidence from all other branches of research.
Authenticity Now Favored
In
the last few years, however, a consensus has emerged that the conclusions from
the radiocarbon dating were off by 1000 years or more, because they failed to
correct the radiocarbon count for the presence of massive organic contamination
of the small test samples which were cut from a corner of the Shroud that had
been heavily handled by human hands over the course of many centuries.
The Present Position
The nature of the image on the cloth is now scientifically
understood to be a chemical alteration of the linen, technically called an
oxidation, which has produced the straw-yellow image elements. The chemical
change was brought about by means of either a vapour diffusion process, or more
likely by a certain kind of radiation. This much is generally agreed.
There is no consensus yet on the exact nature and source of the
required image-forming radiation. This is the major research problem at the
present time.
UPDATE, February
2008
A new page has been added to the Website, entitled : Cosmology of a Binary
Universe: Part II. The Evolution of Physical and Biological Complexity . In Part I, the evolution of the UF,
both before and after the Big Bang, was examined. In the new page, the role of the Universal Field ( UF) and its
orderly forces in the evolution of physical and biological complexity is
examined
This ends a rather long detour from our main subject of this Website,
namely the scientific problem of the origin and nature of the Image on the Holy
Shroud. The last page added to the Website on this main subject was (The Shroud Image and
Radiation ) in October
2004. Then the concept and properties of the Universal Field ( UF) began to be
explored and pages since then (
Properties of a
Universal Wave Field (UF) Nov/05; A Logarithmic Scaling of
the Cosmic Time Events to Base Seven, May/06; Cosmology of a Binary
Universe : Part I, April/07; The Soul/ Body Problem:
An Exploratory Reassessment, May/07)
have dealt with this new
scientific field.
Work has now resumed on two specific Shroud problems: (1) energy transformations which might have
given rise to the mysterious shroud image, and (2) the nature of any radiation
emitted during energy transformations which could account for the known
scientific properties of the shroud image.
Update (May/07)
Further
exploratory work on the Universal Field (UF) into Quadrant II on the p-v energy
diagram has pointed to rather remarkable correlation of its properties with
those of the traditional western philosophical concept of the human soul. This is contained in a new
Page entitled The
Soul/Body Problem: An Exploratory Reassessment
Update (April/07)
Continued work on
applying the theory of compressible fluid flow to the problem of the image
formation on the Holy Shroud, which is the principal concern of this Website,
has resulted in the formation of an entirely new approach to cosmology which is
presented here in a new Page entitled Cosmology
of a Binary Universe: Part I .
Present day
cosmology is based on the theory of General Relativity. This has a number of
fundamental limitations, such as being unable to account for the concentration
of energy at the Big Bang and for the reconciliation of the nature of gravity
with the facts of quantum physics. It
cannot account for the cosmic inflation postulated to explain the physical
evolution of the stars and galaxies, nor for the nature and origin of dark
matter and so-called dark energy, which together make up about 96% of the
universe.
In the course of
examining the properties of the Universal Field presented on this Site in May
2006, it has been found that a Carnot cycle in the UF can provide answers to
present cosmological problems such as the origin of the Big Bang, the physical
basis for cosmic inflation, the origin of ordinary matter, dark matter and dark
energy, and moreover can do so from a single physical postulate and without
requiring any new laws of physics. The new theory is available at Cosmology of a Binary Universe :Part I.
Update (May /06)
1.The cosmic
time scale yields ‘seven logarithmic
intervals of creation’
The appearance of
an Update on the topic of creation may at first sight appear to be a departure from
the main theme of this Website which is devoted to the scientific investigation
of the nature and origin of the mysterious image on the Shroud of Turin.
The current
dispute between the U.S. scientific establishment and those who propose teaching an alternative
theory about Evolution termed “Intelligent Design” in schools has occasionally strayed off into the
religious and philosophical subject of
‘creation’, and this in turn
brings in the venerable Hebrew
account of creation in Genesis. In the course of discussions of the matter we ( J. F. Power and Bernard A.
Power) have found an interesting aspect of the cosmic history time series,
namely that, when the obviously logarithmic cosmic
times are graphed -not to base 10 logarithms
as is usually done - but instead to the base 7 - an intriguing result emerges. On this new
logarithmic scale the cosmic data for the whole immense time interval from the
Big Bang at 13.7 billion years ago to the emergence of mankind in the last one
hundred thousand years or so become
compressed into just seven equal
logarithmic intervals.
We have seven
equal ‘days’ of creation in Genesis and
now seven equal logarithmic intervals in
science. While the result is socially and polemically interesting, its scientific
meaning probably depends on whether or not
there is some actual physical
reason or evolutionary process involving
the logarithmic base 7. If there is such a physical basis then
it could lead to a new insight into evolutionary processes. It is because there does appears to be such
a link
between the new findings and
the theory
of compressible energy transformations that this Website deals with so
extensively that the subject is
introduced here.
The data and
calculations on the new logarithmic findings are available in a new Page added to our Site entitled : ( A Logarithmic Scaling of the Time Series of
Cosmic Evolutionary Events to the Base Seven )
2. A new
insert entitled “Thermodynamic Properties of an Isothermal Gas Law for the
Chaplygin/tangent Field” has been
added to the Webpage. The recent introduction of the
exotic Chaplygin gas into cosmology has been done because it provides a
negative pressure to account for the recently observed increased rate of
expansion of the cosmos. However, most other aspects of the strange new field
have not been investigated; for example its astonishing ability to support transverse waves was archived
here in the Update of November/December/05 ( see below). Since then the
thermodynamic properties of this field, and especially its unusual entropy
changes, have been studied and a new insert has been added to Properties of a Universal
Wave Field
Update (November/December /05)
New Research
Offers the Possibility of a Complete Radiation Theory of Shroud Image
Formation.
Readers of this
website will be aware that we have advocated a
theory of Holy Shroud image formation involving an indirect transmission of image forming radiation to the Shroud via a radiant heating
of micro-size saline water droplets condensed
onto the Shroud fibrils.
The original
proponents of direct radiation as the image forming mechanism included
Dr. John Jackson who presented a theory of direct transfer of
ultraviolet or other energetic ionizing radiation This view was opposed by the late Dr. Ray Rogers who maintained that
direct energetic radiation absorption would have damaged the Shroud fibrils in a way that
is not observed in the
microphotographs. The Jackson/Rogers
controversy was discussed in the last Update on October 15/ 04 (below).
Our proposal of a
moderately energetic radiation with an indirect coupling to the linen fibers of
he Shroud via the heating of
micro-droplets of condensed water on the linen fibres does not suffer from the
defect pointed out by
But, no matter
how strong the evidence that some kind of image forming radiation came from the
dead body of the Man in the Shroud, it is still clearly against all human
experience and completely foreign to physical science. In addition, this
radiation would have to have a tie to gravitation in a manner unknown to modern
electromagnetic radiation theory.
The possible line of progress seemed to lie in continued
exploration of the World B hypothesis previously presented on this Website
through continued study of exotic compressible fluids or fields such as
the so-called Chaplygin/Tangent gas - an exotic theoretical fluid known for
over a hundred years, but which is only recently being applied to explain the
increased acceleration in the expansion of the universe. This exotic fluid
has negative energy partition
parameters (− n, and −k) and
so is a current example of the
application of an exotic World B fluid to cosmology.
Major new
development in the radiation problem
We now report a major new development in both electromagnetic and gravitational
theory, which it seems may eventually answer
major Shroud radiation questions.
In brief, the Chaplygin gas and its closely related Tangent
gas have now been found not to be
separate ‘gases’ but, instead are simply the adiabatic (zero heat flow)
equations of state of a single compressible field, which is now seen to also
have an isothermal equation of
state. The adiabatic and isothermal
equations of state are orthogonal ( at 90 degrees to one another) and this has some very unusual consequences: this new universal field or “fluid” can generate and transmit not just
longitudinal compressible waves (such as sound waves in air), but, in addition, it becomes a unique ‘fluid’
capable of transmitting transverse
waves, which ties it directly into the transverse electromagnetic waves of
light and other radiation.
The possibility that any fluid could transmit transverse waves has
been investigated by science with negative results for
over a hundred and fifty years. This new exotic compressible field
is therefore unique, and
moreover, seems to require that that light
and all other electromagnetic radiation (which are known to be transverse waves ) are actually waves in this new
Universal Field (UF).
This opens a new avenue
of study for radiation theories of Shroud image
formation. Moreover, the new UF also appears to be the medium for transmitting
Scientific details of this proposed new universal cosmological
wave field (UF) are archived in the new page which has
been added to this site: Properties
of a Universal Wave Field
Update (October/04)
1. Energy, Relativity and Shroud Image-forming
Radiation
A New Page has been added to this Website (The Shroud Image and
Radiation ) which deals with energy, a new theory of
energy compressibility, the effect of energy compressibility on radiation and
on the speed of light, and the problem of the image formation on the Shroud.
The nature and
origin of the type of energetic radiation
which could have formed the image of Christ on the Shroud of Turin requires first
an examination of the nature of energy, the most basic of scientific concepts.
The minimum energy needed to form the image
seen on the Shroud when calculated is found to lie in the range of 286 to about 10,000 Joules. Such modest energies
indicate a mild radiation image formation process, and thereby rule out any
nuclear disintegration process being involved.
Since the image
formation process involves radiation, the
speed of light ( electromagnetic radiation) is necessarily also involved.
The new concept
of the compressibility of energy provides a physically based, variable speed of light (VSL) theory, and leads to an
examination of the theory of relativity.
A review of
physical relativity is given which shows
how a variable speed of light (VSL) theory corrects and replaces it
successfully.
The new theory
then points to possible transformations of the atoms of our
ordinary physical matter (A ) into
an invisible form of matter (B) which may be the so-called ‘dark
matter’ of the universe, known to makes
up 24% of the cosmos but which is
undetectable except through its gravitational
attraction. This A to B transformation also would
release small amounts of energy,
and this energy is examined as a
possible source of the weak energy which apparently formed the image on the
Holy Shroud.
These
topics are discussed in the New Page to this Website: (The
Shroud Image and Radiation )
For a detailed, scientific
presentation of the theory of compressible energy flows, see a separate
science Website www.energycompressibility.info
2. Two new television programs on the Holy Shroud
now essentially present it as being ancient and authentic.
Since the last
Website Update of March/04, PBS and the
BBC have presented new items on the Shroud
PBS
The PBS program
on
In the PBS
program, for the first time, the Carbon 14 “mediaeval date” affair was
discounted, with photographic evidence by Barrie Schwortz (www.shroud.com) being cited to the effect that ultraviolet
photos show the Carbon 14 samples came from an unrepresentative area of the
Shroud - a heavily handled corner.
BBC
The BBC on its
International News around the same date presented a new and potentially very important piece of
evidence as to the characteristics of the Shroud Image, namely that, in certain bodily areas, the image on the
inner side of the Shroud also appears very faintly on the outside of the cloth.
During the 2002 A.D. restoration, when the old
‘Holland cloth’ backing of 1532 A.D. was removed, and before the new backing
was attached, photographs of the outside
or ‘ non-image’ side of the Shroud were made by Ghiberti (2002). These have
since been analyzed by Fanti and Maggiolo (2002). Their findings were reported
by the BBC as having established that the facial image of the Shroud is also
faintly reproduced on the back of, or outer side of, the cloth. Moreover, they
claim that faint images of the hands also show up in photos of the outside of
the Shroud in that area. However, there
is no discernable image of the dorsal image of the Man in the Shroud on the
outer side of the cloth.
This finding of a
“double” superficial image, if confirmed, would be essential for any theory of
image formation to explain. However, some reports also indicate that the
custodial Shroud authorities in Turin deny that there is any image on the
reverse side of the cloth. See Shroud of Turin Website www.shroud.com. The full text of the Fanti and
Maggiolo paper is available on the Collegamento pro Sindone Website (www.shroud.it) .
3. Radiation versus Chemistry
Although, radiation is the most commonly proposed explanation for the
image formation on the Shroud, chemical theories are still being put forward
and debated. A current round in the debate is set out on Shroud of Turin
website www.shroud.com where papers are available from John Jackson supporting
his vacuum ultraviolet radiation mechanism, opposed by Ray Rogers with a chemical transfer process. These exchanges will
be reviewed in later Updates.
4.
To Come
In the next
Update ((2005) an examination will continue into the current problems with the
nature of the ‘dark matter’, and ‘dark energy’ of the universe, and into the
possibility that our present universe is a binary one in which the A→ B transformation
of matter are occurring which may release radiation.
The nature of the
radiation produced in an A→ B transformation of matter will be
further examined in relation to the Shroud image formation mystery.
Update (March/04)
1. A new solution to the puzzling ‘side
strip’ on the Holy Shroud?
Ever since the Shroud
was first photographed in 1898 questions have been asked about the presence of
a puzzling ‘side strip’ along the entire length of one of the long sides of the
Shroud. This strip is about 8 cm wide and 4 meters long. It has been carefully
sewn onto the main body of the cloth, and analysis shows it is of the same
weave as the rest of the Shroud, and was probably part of the original piece of
linen. Without the side strip the image of Christ on the Shroud would be off
centre on the cloth. And so the general conclusion has been that it was added
to one side of the Shroud so as to centre the image on the cloth for public
display purposes on ceremonial occasions.
But the question
remains: Why was the image of Christ off centre on the Shroud in the first place?
See (The Side Strip)
2. A Wrap-up on the Carbon-14 dating of
the Holy Shroud in 1988.
1989 Radiocarbon Dating Doubts
From
1989 to around 2000, the scientific and scholarly interest in the Shroud has
been dominated by a dispute over a radiocarbon dating of the Shroud carried out
in 1988, which asserted that the Shroud was of mediaeval origin, dating from
the period 1260-1390 A.D., thus completely contradicting the great mass of
evidence from all other branches of research.
Authenticity Now Favored
In the last few years,
however, a consensus has emerged that the conclusions from the radiocarbon
dating were off by 1000 years or more, because they failed to correct the
radiocarbon count for the presence of massive organic contamination of the
small test samples which were cut from a corner of the Shroud that had been
heavily handled by human hands over the course of many centuries.
While the focus
of this Website is on the scientific aspects and implications of the physical
aspects of image formation on the Shroud , some may still want to look over the
Carbon-14 affair for themselves, as it is a staple of many superficial and
outdated media references to the Shroud.
Two new pages are
therefore added to the Site for the sake of completeness. The first deals with
carbon-14 dating in general
(Carbon 14
Dating ) . The second
gives computation details and worked examples on the 1988 dating measurements (Carbon 14
Calculations)
3. To Come
In the next planned Update ( August/September, 2004) the first of
a series will begin on the fundamental remaining scientific problem, namely the
nature and origin of the mechanism – probably some type of radiation- which
formed the image of Christ on the cloth.
Part 1 will deal with the subject of energy- , light and
‘dark’- and will explore the energy requirements
for any scientific explanation of the
Shroud image formation mystery.
Update (Nov. 23/03)
What is the current status of Shroud research?
1. Authenticity: The general expert consensus today is an unstated
working agreement – on the weight of all the evidence – that the Shroud is the
authentic burial shroud of Christ which is mentioned in all four gospels of the
New Testament, and that the image on it is not a human artifact, that is to say
it is not a painting, photograph or a forgery. It can be argued even that the level of
proof on this research conclusion
is now ‘beyond reasonable doubt’: (See The Historical Facts;
The Scientific Facts).
2. Nature of the image on the cloth: The image on the Shroud consists of arrays of micro-size dots of straw-yellow colour which
have been formed in the image areas along
the individual cellulose fibrils of the linen cloth. This yellow colour is due to a chemical
change that has occurred to alter
the normally colourless
cellulose. Such colour is brought about
in cellulose by applying either very strong acids or near- scorching heat (
less than 250 deg C) both of which can
cause a certain kind of oxidation of the cellulose. Yet, in the case of the Shroud, there was no
strong acid involved (which would have dissolved the linen), and the
image is definitely not a scorch (since the image areas do not fluoresce as would a scorch). The consensus
is that the image is the result of an oxidation/dehydration chemical change in the linen, and that it is definitely
not caused by a scorch, painting,
photo process, or human fraud of any kind. ( See The Scientific Facts)
If the Shroud is
authentically that of Christ, and the
image on it is not a human artifact, then we are, curiously enough, back to the
situation in 525 -944 A.D. when the Shroud, preserved at Edessa (now Urfa,
Turkey), was famous all over the Eastern
and Western Empires as the Mandylion
or ‘The Image Not Made By Human Hands’ (
in Greek as ‘the image of Christ acheiropoietos’). The difference today is that, in our age of physical
science, we go one step further than our ancestors and make a distinction by
now asking whether the image – clearly
not a human artifact - might still
somehow be a result of, or involve
natural physical mechanisms which still remain to be scientifically
investigated.
3. How did a detailed, negative image of a crucified Man in the
Shroud, with blood stains, wound marks, images of Roman coins over the
eyelids, etc., get formed on the Shroud
by a chemical process which chemically
altered the linen to form micro-spots of
straw-yellow colour?
The majority
opinion today is that the coloured image on the Shroud was formed by some sort
of radiation. The type of radiation
could be electromagnetic ( light, infrared, microwave ), or it could be a
stream of particles, such as protons or electrons. Microwave radiation, for
example, would heat the cellulose to oxidize and colour it as required, and at
the same time would be gentle enough not to otherwise attack or damage the cellulose.
An alternative
natural process theory has been that the image was brought about by the
chemical action of ammonia-like vapours emanating from the enveloped dead body,
accompanied by heat radiation. The
interaction of the vapours with adsorbed embalming spices on the Shroud, such
as aloes and myrrh, is then postulated
to have formed the image colour. Linen
has been experimentally shown to become
coloured pale yellow by such a
process. However, this is a complex, multi-step process, and today it is the
view of a minority, since it also has
serious difficulties with producing
required image characteristics such as definition and sharpness.
4. Where could image-forming radiation
come from? If radiation did form the image of the body
on the Shroud, then it clearly must have originated from the enveloped
body. But dead bodes do not emit
radiation, (apart from very low energy
heat radiation which rapidly declines as the body cools to the ambient
temperature soon after death and rigor
mortis sets in). This leaves us with
the conclusion that, if radiation is the cause of the image, then the radiation
must have originated in some very extraordinary circumstance.
Are we then to
say, since the source of the radiation which formed the image on the Shroud is
presently unknown, that this now puts the entire matter outside the limits of
physical science?
Those researchers on the Shroud who
believed that the image was formed in
connection with the Resurrection of Christ have frequently suggested that some
‘burst of radiation’ accompanied that
Event and caused the image, but no one has offered a plausible,
physically related explanation for such an extraordinary radiation event. Some
of these researchers would now argue that, having verified the Shroud as being
that of Christ, and having agreed that the image on the Shroud is also
authentic, ‘not made by human hands’, and that the image was probably brought
about physically by some sort of presently inexplicable radiation, science may now
logically also have to conclude that it is beyond its powers to further
explain the physical origin of the
image. In other words, the question being raised by a few is: Should science now bow out of Shroud research
and leave the problem entirely to theology?
Most scientific researchers have preferred
to keep away from any ultimate aspect of the problem as long as possible, and
to concentrate on the details of the image which can still be studied
scientifically. In other words, these scientists concentrate on the study of an
artifact and the image on it which are associated with an Event having profound
religious and theological implications, but they do not investigate that Event
per se.
Our position here is that any ultimate
question for science may still be premature. This is because there now exist
several scientific theories which may eventually offer a scientific explanation
- although not an ultimate reason - for the extraordinary generation of the
necessary image-forming radiation.
In astrophysics
there are currently crucial problems involving (a) possible variations in the
fundamental physical constants of nature such as the speed of light in space,
and (b) the so-called ‘dark matter’ and
‘dark energy’ which although they make up 96% of the universe are, as to their
origin and nature, nearly a complete
mystery. Two main explanatory theories are currently being explored. One is the
variable speed of light (VSL) theory,
and the other is the proposal that an exotic fluid called a Chaplygin gas may
exist in the cosmos. These new scientific theories may permit a
transformation of matter which could
release radiant energy in the strength necessary to form the Shroud image. (See
The Scientific Facts).
Therefore, the
scientific examination of the Shroud image is certainly not yet closed, and the
matter will be explored in successive Updates of this
Site.
MAIN PAGE / The Historical Facts/
The Scientific Facts/ Other Shroud Sites/ Carbon 14 Dating/
The Shroud Image and
Radiation
Copyright © 2003/2004/2005,
Bernard A. Power