Kirilian photography is an art long thought died out, but for one photographer, the chance to take the most electrifying pictures without a camera is downright amazing.

Invented back in the 1930s, Kirilian photography is a process by which the photographer puts a flower that’s been whittled down to the point of near-transparency and then placed directly onto color film.  Then, you take that combination, sandwich it between layers of sheet metal and plexiglas, then submerge the whole thing in LIQUID SILICONE.

Wow–maybe this is WHY no one’s doing it any more.

But we’re not done yet–this whole mixture is then electrocuted via jumper cables, which in turn ionizes the air around it and leaves its imprint on the film directly.

In terms of sheer complexity, this definitely beats regular photography, but there’s no denying that the results provide an eerie sort of glowing beauty that regular photography can’t even begin to touch.