Shroud of Turin shows future of science, says local expert
World-renowned Los Angeles liturgical artist Isabel
Piczek earned accolades for "opening new doors of
research" at the Dallas International Shroud of Turin
Conference held at the Adolphus Hotel Sept. 8-11. The
landmark event drew 160 scientists, artists and
physicians from around the world sharing the latest
research on the shroud, believed by many to portray a
full-length image of the crucified Christ.
Using a statue she created as a visual aid measuring
one-third the actual size of the man depicted on the
shroud, Piczek presented her explanation of the
image's "Concealed Bas-Relief Effect." She theorizes
the image of the shroud was transported onto a
straight and taut linen above and below the man's
hovering body.
"One of the puzzling mysteries of the shroud is that
the image transported to an absolutely straight, taut
surface is not flat. It is semi-three-dimensional,
very much the same as a bas-relief is in art,"
explained Piczek. "In art, the bas-relief image always
curves out of a straight background that radically
eliminates the rest of the space behind the
bas-relief."
Refuting theories that the figure on the shroud was
painted, Piczek declared that the image's strong
foreshortening of the body, combined with the lack of
a continuous paint medium film on the cloth's surface,
are "decisive arguments" that the shroud is not a
painting. According to Piczek, the foreshortening of
the legs, reflecting the reclined figure's elevated
knees, excludes the possibility of a contact image of
any kind. "An unknown system obeying laws different
from optics created the image with strangely similar
visual results," declared Piczek.
She came to this theory "at the cost of my whole
brain" only one month ago during the creation of the
shroud statue. "A heretofore unknown interface acted
as an event horizon," explained Piczek. "The straight,
taut linen of the shroud simply was forced to parallel
the shape of this powerful interface. The projection,
an action at a distance, happens from the surface and
limit of this, taking with itself the bas-relief image
of the upper and, separately, the underside of the
body."
Piczek, who holds degrees in art and particle physics,
thinks this new theory of how the image appeared
warrants greater investigation of the non-image area
of the shroud. Such research could yield scientific
clues to the "unknown information field" which caused
the projection, according to the shroud expert. A
devout Catholic as well as a theoretical physicist,
Piczek believes the image occurred at the moment of
Christ's resurrection.
"The image of the shroud and its riddle cannot be
solved through the science of the past," said Piczek.
Concurring with French physicist and shroud
researcher, Dr. William Wolkowski, Piczek believes
that transdisciplinary study of the shroud will give
birth to a new scientific age. "The shroud shows the
future of science," declared Piczek.
She called the conference a "landmark event" due to
the presence of Turin officials who fielded questions
about the shroud, last displayed in public in 2000.
Msgr. Giuseppe Ghiberti, adviser and spokesman for the
papal custodian of the shroud in Turin, Italy, led the
Turin delegation and delivered the keynote address.
According to Piczek, the Turin officials dispelled
rumors about the shroud, including whether or not the
shroud has been vacuumed. "The old thought that the
shroud has been vacuumed is not true. The dirt on the
cloth is historic," said Piczek, a founding board
member of the Dallas-based American Shroud of Turin
Association for Research. AMSTAR co-sponsored the
event along with CENTRO, a 400-year-old shroud
organization based in Turin, and the 50-year-old Holy
Shroud Guild based in Esopus, New York.
During the conference, botany expert, Dr. Alan
Whanger, indicated that pollen and flowers on the
shroud reveal plants native to Jerusalem at the time
of Jesus. Other conference presenters discussed their
analysis of the shroud's human bloodstains as well as
biblical references to the shroud and an explanation
of the cloth's "lost years" before it resurfaced in
France in the 13th century.
Next year, an international shroud conference will be
held in Los Angeles. Dr. August Accetta, founder of
The Southern California Shroud Center in Huntington
Beach will be among the local organizers for the 2006
event. (For further information on shroud events, log
on to www.shroud.com.)