The Shroud Codex Part 17

"Why not? I doubt you take every case you're asked to take."

"You're right," Castle conceded. "But let me ask you. Why did you take up this story? You're obviously ambitious, but is that the extent of why?"

"Maybe," Ferrar answered. "Is there anything wrong with being ambitious?"

"No, not necessarily. But there's lots of stories out there. Why this one?"

"In my case, I'm intrigued," Ferrar said. "I was raised Catholic in Puerto Rico. The Shroud is fascinating to me and you have to admit, Father Bartholomew is a good story."

"Yes, he is," Castle said. "But what if it turns out all this is a fraud, or that Father Bartholomew is just mentally ill? Will you report that?"

Ferrar thought for a minute. "It would be a lot less interesting story," he finally said. "I guess I would report it, but who would care? People want to believe in G.o.d. They want to believe in miracles."

"I know," Castle said, moving in for the kill. "I would even go so far as to say people need to believe. But that is not my question. My question is about you. Do you want to believe? Is that why you're doing the story? Is it because you want the Shroud to be the burial cloth of Christ and you want Father Bartholomew to be a miracle man?"

Again, Ferrar thought before he answered. "I see where you're headed. You're a smart guy and I don't want to fall into your trap. Let me answer you this way: To tell you the truth, I'm not really sure about the Shroud, or about Bartholomew. But what I know is this-I'm covering the story because there is a good chance it's all true. Otherwise, I wouldn't waste my time."

"And from my point of view, it's just the opposite," Castle countered. "I took on Father Bartholomew as a patient because there's a good chance it's all false. Otherwise, I wouldn't waste my time."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN.

Thursday morning Bologna, Italy Day 22 The eight pa.s.sengers-Dr. Castle and Anne Ca.s.sidy, Fathers Morelli and Middagh, Fernando Ferrar and his three-man crew-fit comfortably in the eight-seat, two-engine Citation XLS the Vatican had chartered for the forty-seven-minute flight from Rome to Bologna.

Two limos picked up the pa.s.sengers at the airport and transported them to the University of Bologna, where chemistry professor Marco Gabrielli was preparing for the press conference of his life.

When Castle and Anne walked into the auditorium-style conference room with its tiers of raised seats, Gabrielli was backstage, carefully going over his notes one last time. Castle counted some fifty correspondents who were present, including Reuters from Great Britain, the a.s.sociated Press from the United States, and Agence France-Presse. Italian journalists sat in the front row behind name cards reserved for Corriere della Sera Corriere della Sera in Milan, in Milan, La Repubblica La Repubblica from Rome, and from Rome, and La Stampa La Stampa from Turin, among others. Video cameras from RAI in Italy and TV5 in France were prominent among the European television crews set up in the back row of the stylish facility. Quietly, the American video crew set up their camera among the others in the back of the room, as Fernando Ferrar positioned himself alone, in the center of the auditorium. Fathers Morelli and Middagh sat in the row behind Dr. Castle and Anne Ca.s.sidy, off to the side of the auditorium. from Turin, among others. Video cameras from RAI in Italy and TV5 in France were prominent among the European television crews set up in the back row of the stylish facility. Quietly, the American video crew set up their camera among the others in the back of the room, as Fernando Ferrar positioned himself alone, in the center of the auditorium. Fathers Morelli and Middagh sat in the row behind Dr. Castle and Anne Ca.s.sidy, off to the side of the auditorium.

Each auditorium seat came equipped with earphones. A dial built into the desk allowed the occupant to select one of four languages: Italian, French, English, and German. Behind a gla.s.s panel off to the side of the room, opposite where Dr. Castle and the others sat, were four translators ready to do a simultaneous broadcast to the conference partic.i.p.ants.

At precisely 11:30 A.M. A.M. local time, Dr. Gabrielli stepped to the podium, flanked by two a.s.sistants in lab coats. Behind each a.s.sistant was an easel with the display boards covered by a white cloth. He looked dapper in his finely tailored beige cashmere sport coat and black turtleneck sweater. For once, his freshly cut and nicely combed black hair was a good match for his closely trimmed Van d.y.k.e beard. From the way he was dressed and groomed, Castle judged Gabrielli was at the top of his game. The impression was reinforced the minute Gabrielli stepped to the podium. As he surveyed the audience, Gabrielli's trademark wry smile and his darting green eyes gave the impression that he was indeed the cat who had caught the mouse. local time, Dr. Gabrielli stepped to the podium, flanked by two a.s.sistants in lab coats. Behind each a.s.sistant was an easel with the display boards covered by a white cloth. He looked dapper in his finely tailored beige cashmere sport coat and black turtleneck sweater. For once, his freshly cut and nicely combed black hair was a good match for his closely trimmed Van d.y.k.e beard. From the way he was dressed and groomed, Castle judged Gabrielli was at the top of his game. The impression was reinforced the minute Gabrielli stepped to the podium. As he surveyed the audience, Gabrielli's trademark wry smile and his darting green eyes gave the impression that he was indeed the cat who had caught the mouse.

"Good morning," Gabrielli began confidently. "Welcome to the University of Bologna. I am Dr. Marco Gabrielli, senior professor of chemistry here. My complete academic resume will be provided to you in the press packets we will hand out at the end of the session. We will take questions at the end of my short presentation."

Looking out at the audience, Gabrielli was pleased to see Dr. Castle in attendance. Almost imperceptibly, Gabrielli nodded recognition to his friend and a.s.sociate in the audience.

"My expertise at the University of Bologna has in recent years been extended to exposing frauds in a wide range of paranormal phenomena, including supposed miracles involving a variety of statues of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and various saints that have been claimed to be crying tears of blood, to an exposition of the chemistry by which religious mystics have been able to self-produce the illusion of the stigmata, the nail wounds of Christ's crucifixion appearing typically on their wrists."

Having given more than one press conference in his career, Gabrielli planned to cut to the chase.

"Today I am here to announce that I have successfully reproduced the Shroud of Turin using only materials and methods known to be available to medieval forgers who were working in the period between 1260 and 1390 A.D. A.D., the dates the carbon-14 tests done on the Shroud have established for its date of creation."

At Gabrielli's instruction, his first a.s.sistant removed the cloth from the first easel, exposing a life-size photograph of the frontal image of the crucified man depicted in the Shroud of Turin. "This, as you see, is the original Shroud of Turin. This image is a life-size photographic negative that shows the crucified man's features in white highlights."

At his instruction, the second a.s.sistant removed the cloth from the second easel, showing for the first time Gabrielli's life-size reproduction of the Shroud on a modern strip of linen made, under Gabrielli's direction, to match the Shroud of Turin's exact weave pattern and size. When the image was exposed, even the jaded members of the press seemed to let out an audible gasp. The first impression of everyone in the room was that Gabrielli had done it. His reproduction was startling in how much it looked exactly like the original, down to the beard and mustache of the crucified man, the scourge marks visible on the body, and the nail wounds seen in the man's wrists and feet.

"I'd like you to meet my model," Gabrielli said, motioning to the back door of the auditorium.

Out stepped a handsome, bearded man in his early thirties, wearing a long, flowing white robe designed to enhance the effect.

"This is one of my senior graduate students," the professor said. "Roberto d'Agostini."

Everyone in the room was instantly impressed by how much d'Agostini looked like an icon of Jesus Christ that had stepped right out of the Shroud itself. Even Castle was impressed. D'Agostini had the same square face and beard with a forked opening in the middle, the same long hair that drooped to his shoulders and trailed into a ponytail that stretched down his back to his waist. He had the same long, elegant fingers as the man in the Shroud of Turin. Even their ages seemed similar. D'Agostini appeared to be in his early thirties and Christ, according to tradition, was thirty-three years old when he was crucified.

But truthfully Castle wasn't sure whether d'Agostini or Father Bartholomew had done a better job in making themselves look like the man in a Shroud, so he guessed it was a toss-up. If d'Agostini looked somewhat younger than the man in the Shroud of Turin, Father Bartholomew in his early forties looked somewhat older. That was the only significant difference Castle could discern.

"While I can a.s.sure you that Signore d'Agostini's beard and mustache are authentic, there was no reason for him to appear nude today," Gabrielli said. "The wounds you see in my shroud were painted on his body, based on a detailed a.n.a.lysis of the wounds we see in the Shroud of Turin. We transferred the body image to the linen cloth of the Shroud duplicate by a series of carefully designed rubbing methods and exposure to ambient light."

D'Agostini gathered up his robe and took a chair to the side of Dr. Gabrielli. Sitting quietly, he looked every bit as composed and serene as did the man in the Shroud.

"While the press packet will give you a more complete description of my methodology, let me simply say that I used red ochre and vermilion paints, common coloring materials available to medieval artists. I followed, among others, the scientific conclusions of Dr. Walter McCrone, the American chemist and leading expert in microscopy who was a member of the team of scientists allowed by the Vatican to examine the Shroud over a five-day period as part of the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project. To produce the image on my Shroud, we treated the Shroud with a light-sensitive coating made from a proprietary mixture of egg alb.u.min and various plant extracts. The primary paint I used was an iron oxide formula commonly known as red ochre, which I supplemented for detailed painting with a mercuric sulfide mixture known in the Middle Ages as vermilion. I produced the final result by exposing the finished product to various heat treatments in a specially designed industrial ceramic furnace. I would remind believers that the Shroud of Turin does not show substantial traces of iron oxide or mercuric sulfide today because the paint pigments on the original Shroud faded away over the centuries."

The video cameras at the back zoomed in for close-ups of both shrouds, as the reporters at their desks furiously made notes.

"In conclusion," Gabrielli said, "please realize that this is only my first effort. My goal today was simply to demonstrate to you that materials and techniques commonly available to medieval artists were more than sufficient for a skilled and brilliant forger to have produced the Shroud of Turin in his studio. I think you will agree that the shroud duplicate that you see before you has fundamentally the same characteristics you see in the original Shroud of Turin. My goal is to dispel the myth that the Shroud of Turin displays unexplainable features that could not be produced by human hands. I believe you will agree with me that the shroud duplicate I have produced in the last few weeks goes a long way to proving that the Shroud of Turin is no more authentic than religious statues claimed to bleed real blood."

When Gabrielli finished, a flurry of reporters raised their hands to be the first to ask a question.

In politically astute deference to his countrymen, Gabrielli chose an Italian press reporter from the first row to ask the first question. Gabrielli asked the reporter to identify himself before he asked his question.

"I'm Silvio Brunetta from La Repubblica La Repubblica in Rome," he said as he stood up. "How do you expect the Vatican to react to your shroud?" in Rome," he said as he stood up. "How do you expect the Vatican to react to your shroud?"

Gabrielli chuckled. "Truthfully, I don't expect any reaction," he said. "The Vatican has always been cautious not to confirm the Shroud of Turin as the actual burial cloth of Christ. The group that I do expect to go berserk are the scientific members of the Shroud of Turin community around the world who have a vested interest in defending their decades of research trying to prove the Shroud is real, despite the carbon-14 evidence to the contrary."

A second questioner introduced himself. "I'm Vittorio Graviano with Corriere della Sera Corriere della Sera in Milan. I see on your shroud that you even duplicated the burn holes and water damage we see on the original Shroud. Can you tell us how you added these effects?" in Milan. I see on your shroud that you even duplicated the burn holes and water damage we see on the original Shroud. Can you tell us how you added these effects?"

"Certainly," Gabrielli answered. "As I said, I wanted my shroud to look as much as possible like the original Shroud. So, after we placed the image of Signore d'Agostini on the cloth, we scorched the cloth and soaked it with water, to duplicate as much as possible the patterns of damage you see on the original. To finalize the results, I added blood and blood serum to the image, in the exact areas we see bloodstains on the original. To be authentic, I used human blood."

From there, Gabrielli was peppered with questions for half an hour. No, he answered, he was not an atheist. "I'm a Roman Catholic," he a.s.serted. "Just not a very devout one."

He stated that he did not hate the Vatican and that he did not want to hurt Christianity. "My goal is not political," he argued. "I'm a professional chemist who teaches here at one of Italy and Europe's oldest and most prestigious universities. I expose fraud. My goal is to prevent gullible people worldwide from being deceived even today by a forger who had a plan to get rich in the thirteenth or fourteenth century."

Gabrielli stated that his goal was not to get rich by his efforts.

Asked whether he produced the shroud because of the recent fame of Father Paul Bartholomew in the United States, Gabrielli admitted that the attention generated by the American priest was his inspiration. "Yes," he said. "And I understand that Father Bartholomew has been brought to Rome by the Vatican and I am looking forward to meeting him. Maybe after that I can give you a report on how I believe Father Bartholomew is producing the illusion of his stigmata."

That Father Bartholomew had been brought from the United States to Italy by the Vatican was news to all in the room, except of course for Dr. Castle and the contingent that had traveled with them from New York.

Fernando Ferrar spoke up.

"I'm Fernando Ferrar, a television reporter from New York," he said, introducing himself. "I can confirm that Father Bartholomew is in Rome. My news crew and I traveled with him on the Vatican-chartered airplane that left JFK Airport for Rome this Tuesday evening."

Heads in the audience turned, as various reporters decided they would interview Ferrar as well as Gabrielli before they rushed out to file their stories.

"My question, Professor Gabrielli, is this." Ferrar continued: "Just because you can duplicate the Shroud of Turin does not mean the original isn't authentic."

"What do you mean?" Gabrielli asked, puzzled at the supposed question.

"Maybe somebody could duplicate Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, but that doesn't prove Leonardo didn't paint the original." but that doesn't prove Leonardo didn't paint the original."

"What's your point?" Gabrielli shot back.

"My point is simple." Ferrar pressed on. "It's a lot easier to duplicate something than to create it in the first place. I don't see that you produced the 'positive' from which your negative image with the white highlighting was taken. How did a medieval painter think to create a negative that would not have been recognized as such until Secondo Pia first photographed the Shroud for the 1898 exposition?"

"This is just my first effort," Gabrielli said defensively. "I will be refining my techniques in the future and producing more examples to show how the Shroud of Turin could have been forged. Remember, I can't prove the Shroud was forged. I can only prove the Shroud could could have been forged." have been forged."

"Isn't that a lot like trying to prove that the Declaration of Independence could have been printed on a modern copying machine?" Ferrar asked, hoping he might get an answer. "Maybe you could get from a copy machine a doc.u.ment that would be indistinguishable from the original, but what would it prove? Just because you can copy a doc.u.ment doesn't mean the original isn't authentic."

"If you recall, I stressed that I used only medieval materials and techniques," Gabrielli said, smiling in a condescending way. "Copy machines were obviously not around in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries."

Then, looking to Dr. Castle and seeing him nod with satisfaction, he decided it was time to bring the press conference to an end. "Thank you for coming," Gabrielli announced. "That concludes the formal part of our news conference for today. Press packages will be handed out in the back of the room as you exit."

But before Gabrielli could leave, reporters circled him and blocked his escape in their determination to ask him one more question before he got away.

The still photographers roamed about, taking close-up shots of Gabrielli surrounded by the gaggle of reporters, of d'Agostini, who was more than willing to pose alongside Gabrielli's shroud, and of Gabrielli's shroud itself. The video crews moved through the crowd with their handheld cameras, getting the fill-in footage they would need to give the press conference some background context. Almost immediately, one of the reporters with a cell phone camera scooped the television reporters by posting a video of the press conference on the Internet.

Within the hour, video of Gabrielli's news conference was being seen by millions worldwide, both on the Internet and on television.

The headlines from a largely nonbelieving and predictably cynical world press were much as expected: ITALIAN SCIENTIST REPRODUCES SHROUD OF TURIN AND SCIENTIST PROVES SHROUD OF TURIN IS A MEDIEVAL FORGERY ITALIAN SCIENTIST REPRODUCES SHROUD OF TURIN AND SCIENTIST PROVES SHROUD OF TURIN IS A MEDIEVAL FORGERY seemed to capture the general tenor of the stories going forth that afternoon from the conference room in Bologna. seemed to capture the general tenor of the stories going forth that afternoon from the conference room in Bologna.

On the airplane ride back to Rome, Castle was amused at how right Gabrielli was. He had two Shroud supporters with him in the persons of Fathers Morelli and Middagh. Despite Archbishop Duncan's initial effort to sell Father Morelli to him as a devil's advocate Jesuit, Morelli admitted he had crossed over long ago, convinced the scientific evidence weighed in favor of the Shroud's authenticity, despite the carbon-14 dating.

Middagh and Morelli did nothing to hide their displeasure at having to listen to an hour or more of talk from Gabrielli, who they thought lacked expertise in Shroud research.

"The Shroud of Turin Research Project discredited Walter McCrone," Middagh said.

"Gabrielli all but admitted today that the traces of iron oxide on the Shroud are minimal," Morelli added in an irritated tone. "Besides, the straw yellow color of the body image on the Shroud doesn't match the color of any forms of ferric iron oxides that are known to exist."

"Science by press release," was how Middagh summed up Gabrielli's performance before the international media. "He's a publicity hound, nothing more and nothing less. If he were a true scientist, Gabrielli would have presented his findings to a peer-reviewed academic journal. Otherwise, it's just show business."

Listening to Fathers Middagh and Morelli grouse, Castle was convinced he was in the first stages of hearing the Vatican's unofficial reb.u.t.tal, even though Castle was certain Pope John-Paul Peter I would never take any official position on the Shroud.

"How many times do we have to prove that the Shroud was not painted," Morelli wondered. "Red ochre is an earth pigment that would have washed off when water was thrown on the Shroud in the 1532 fire. McCrone was an old fool who was the only member of the Shroud of Turin Research Project to think the Shroud was painted. That was his opinion going into the research project and that was the prejudice he held until he died."

"Besides, there's the issue of the blood on the Shroud blocking the formation of the image," Middagh said. "How many times do we have to explain that there were two distinct steps in which the image was formed: first the blood was deposited by direct contact, then the body image was formed by a process n.o.body so far has explained satisfactorily. I'm sure all Gabrielli did was throw blood here and there on top of an image he already created. Look closely and I'm sure you will find a body image under the globs of blood Gabrielli painted on his shroud. If that's what Gabrielli did, he missed an important point and his duplicate shroud will end up doing nothing to discredit the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin."

When they landed in Rome, Morelli got a call from the Vatican.

"The Vatican says we should all rest up tonight," Morelli told Castle.

"Why?" Castle wondered.

"The pope has chartered the plane for us once again tomorrow morning," Morelli explained. "They have scheduled us a trip to Geneva. Seems there is a scientist at CERN the pope wants us to meet."

"Are we invited?" Ferrar asked, not wanting to be excluded.

"Yes," Morelli said, "and the pope suggests you will want to bring along your video crew. The Vatican has requested for you to videotape the interview."

"Sounds good to me," Ferrar said.

"One more thing," Morelli said to Castle. "The pope wants Professor Gabrielli to go along. Do you think you can arrange that? The pope will schedule an airplane to take Gabrielli directly to Geneva and return him home at the conclusion of the day."

"I don't know," Castle said, not entirely surprised at Pope John-Paul Peter I's decision to include his chemist friend on the field trip to CERN. "I will telephone him and find out."

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.

Friday CERN, Geneva, Switzerland Day 23 The name CERN derived from the acronym in French for Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire, or European Council for Nuclear Research. CERN was formed in 1952 as a provisional body charged with building a world-cla.s.s fundamental physics research organization in Europe. The guts of CERN were underground, consisting primarily of the Large Hadron Collider, a twenty-seven-kilometer-circ.u.mference circular tunnel built below the surface of the earth in the area between the Geneva airport and the Jura Mountains. CERN physicists use the Large Hadron Collider to smash protons together in an attempt to understand the "big bang," which many modern physicists and astronomers believe was the origin of the universe.

Within minutes of Dr. Castle's arrival from Rome, a limo delivered Professor Gabrielli from Bologna. Once the group was together, they were escorted down a central elevator to the office of Dr. Ruth Bucholtz, an internationally renowned particle physicist. In the past year, Dr. Bucholtz had the personal pleasure of presenting the results of her decade-long research on the Shroud of Turin to Pope John-Paul Peter I in a personal two-hour audience in the Vatican. In a conference room adjoining her office, Dr. Bucholtz set up the equipment she would need to demonstrate her conclusions about the Shroud.

Dr. Bucholtz greeted them with her thick German accent. Castle judged her to be in her early sixties. He had to admit she looked attractive in the gray pinstriped pantsuit she wore for the occasion, instead of her more customary white lab coat. Her shoulder-length silver hair blended nicely with her distinctive gray eyes. By training, Dr. Bucholtz was a Ph.D.-level physicist who studied at the Technische Universitat Munchen, or Technical University in Munich, one of Germany's most highly acclaimed research universities in chemistry, engineering, physics, and mathematics. After graduation, she joined the physics faculty at the University of Heidelberg, where she remained until 1990, when she accepted a full-time senior research position at CERN.

Dr. Castle took the opportunity to introduce the others to Dr. Bucholtz as they took their seats in the conference room to watch her presentation.

"Do you mind if we video your presentation, Dr. Bucholtz?" Fernando Ferrar asked.

"No," she answered. "I have no objection whatsoever. The Holy Father when he spoke to me yesterday from the Vatican expressly asked my permission.

"Thank you for coming here today," she began, addressing Castle and others. "After Professor Gabrielli's most interesting presentation yesterday in Bologna, the Vatican called and asked me if I would be willing to share with you the results of the research I have been doing on the Shroud of Turin for the past ten years. It may surprise you that a physicist like myself with a specialty in advanced particle physics should take an interest in the Shroud of Turin, but I estimate that after you view my presentation you will understand what drew my interest."

Castle was not surprised. Father Bartholomew was also a particle physicist. Castle a.s.sumed Bartholomew and Bucholtz shared a lot of scientific perspectives and conclusions.

With this, an a.s.sistant in the back of the room lowered the lights. Bucholtz had projected from the computer a photograph of the Shroud of Turin displayed in the specially built vacuum-sealed display case in the Chapel of the Shroud in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Turin. "As you know, the Shroud is a relatively ordinary piece of linen, but what I want to explain to you here today is why I have concluded that the Shroud contains a quantum message that we can only begin to decipher with the advance equipment we have here at a world-cla.s.s particle physics research laboratory such as CERN. You will have to trust me for now when I claim that the Shroud is a blueprint to a completely new understanding of our universe, an understanding for which we will have to invent a completely new science of physics."

This got everyone's immediate attention, particularly Castle's. What did Dr. Bucholtz mean by a "quantum message"? What type of advanced equipment had Dr. Bucholtz used to decode the message she claimed to have read in the Shroud? What new "blueprint" could this ancient relic possibly contain? Castle was not sure. Neither was any of the other guests in the room.

"I want to start by showing you some images that were developed by Dr. John Jackson and Dr. Eric Jumper in 1976. Dr. Jackson, then an air force officer, was working as a physicist at the U.S. Air Force Academy while Dr. Jumper was an air force captain working as an a.s.sistant professor of aerodynamics with Dr. Jackson. At that time, they were utilizing a NASA-developed VP-8 Image a.n.a.lyzer that was designed in the 1960s to create relief maps of the moon from astronomical photographs. Their goal was to produce topographic images that would be useful to NASA and to the U.S. astronauts preparing for moon landings. Dr. Jackson, as I am sure most of you know, went on to be a primary organizer and scientific leader of the thirty or so scientists he a.s.sembled to make up the 1978 Shroud of Turin Research Project. At present, Dr. Jackson heads the Turin Shroud Center of Colorado, with his wife, Rebecca, in Colorado Springs."

Next, Dr. Bucholtz displayed on the screen a copy of the 1931 photograph Giuseppe Enrie had taken of the Shroud of Turin.

"When Jackson and Jumper placed this famous 1931 photograph of the Shroud of Turin into the VP-8 Image a.n.a.lyzer, they were startled to see a three-dimensional image. What jumped out was the face of the man in the Shroud of Turin in the accurate 3-D detail they would have expected to find from the 3-D topographic images the machine was design to create for moon craters. By comparison, when Jackson and Jumper a.n.a.lyzed a normal photograph taken of a person, the result was not a three-dimensional image, but a rather distorted jumble of light and dark shapes. The two-dimensional photograph lacked the necessary information coded within the image to produce a 3-D picture of the person, unlike the image of the Shroud."

Everyone in the room understood the point when Bucholtz projected onto the screen the three-dimensional green-tone image of the face of the man in the Shroud as produced by the VP-8 Image a.n.a.lyzer. Instead of seeing the face as a flat, two-dimensional image, the man in the Shroud appeared almost alive. The nose, cheeks, hair, beard, and mustache all stood out, while the eyes receded as one would expect.

"The difference is that the lights and darks of normal photographic film result solely from the amount of light reflected by the subject onto the film. In sharp contrast, the image in the Shroud contains precise data that record density in direct relations.h.i.+p to the distance the subject was from the film. In other words, the closer the cloth was to the body, for instance at the tip of the nose or in the cheekbone, the darker the image that was formed on the Shroud. The more distant the body part-for instance, the eye sockets or the neck-the fainter was the image recorded on the Shroud. As you will see in this next slide, we get the same three-dimensionality when we examine the full-length body of the man in the Shroud in the VP-8 Image a.n.a.lyzer."

Again everyone in the room was impressed by the lifelike nature of the green-tone image Bucholtz projected on the screen: the man in the Shroud shown in a frontal view from the top of his head to the fingertips of his crossed hands to his feet.