One of the most amazing features of the image of Manoppello is its transparency. If you position yourself so that you can see the open door to the sanctuary or the stained glass window in the background, the image disappears. The Face appears when you look at it from certain angle.


The transparency effect, the stained glass window in the background

And these are not all peculiar features... When one compares the photos of the averse and the reverse, one can see surprising differences in details, especially in the arrangement of hair. This phenomenon was described for the first time by two scientists, Associate Professor Jan S. Jaworski, PhD, from the University of Warsaw in Poland, and Prof. Giulio Fanti from the University of Padua in Italy. Professor Zbigniew Treppa from the University of Gdańsk also suggested an interesting method. He took a series of photos with a digital single-lens reflex camera and thanks to using a tripod he obtained comparative data for further studies. According to Prof. Treppa, the arrangement of hair and also e.g. the parting between the lips change depending on the light used, even if we study only the averse of the image.

How is this possible that many images are recorded on one canvas? Let us assume for a moment that the image was painted. Accordingly, the artist would have to paint the averse first and then the reverse. What is more, they would have to be painted in such a way as to make them different. Why and in what way was the artist to do it? Another equally wacky hypothesis claims that the image is a hologram and that is why it changes along with the viewpoint. Fine, but the image is old and holography did not exist until 1962 when Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks of the University of Michigan used laser light to create the first hologram...


Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks,
the first hologram, “A toy train and bird”, 1964

Undoubtedly, just as it is with the Turin Shroud, the world of science is divided into two opposing groups: one which supports the theory of the supernatural origins of the image, and the other which is firmly opposed to the idea. There will surely be numerous contradicting theories. Unfortunately, I do not have the adequate quality photos showing both sides of the fabric. Nonetheless, I decided to carry out a sort of a mental experiment. Anybody who ever rode a bike experienced a simple phenomenon of hair winnowing. It happens even if there is no wind. Let us take numerous photos with a camera placed on the bike's handle bars and facing the rider. Then let us look at single frames. We can notice that the face remains the same, but the hair arrangement does not. A similar phenomenon may be fixed on the Veil of Manoppello, i.e. there are numerous images recorded at the moment of Resurrection on a single data carrier.


The strand of hair on the forehead, a photo of the reverse and a mirror image of the averse


The diagram of the reverse


The diagram of the averse, a mirror image


The reverse → the averse, an animation

Some of the researchers of the Turin Shroud claim that the image of a crucified man was fixed with radiation of unknown origins. The image on the Veil might have been imprinted in a similar way. Undoubtedly, the human body is not able to penetrate a delicate fabric. The matter must have been changed into energy. Many people consider it totally unthinkable. However, they do believe that light in some situations (e.g. the photoelectric effect or the solar wind) behaves like a material particle with mass, i.e. photon, and in other situations (e.g. interference, diffraction, reflection, or refraction) it is an immaterial electromagnetic wave! In order to find a way out of this evident inconsistency, the pretty theory of wave-particle duality was coined, which must be understood as "I know that I know nothing". We know how to build atomic bombs and nuclear reactors. We want to use nuclear fusion to produce clean energy. And it is not a fundamental problem for us that mass is equivalent to energy (E=mc2). However, believing the impossible, e.g. the resurrection, is a problem.

"Looking at them, Jesus said, 'With people it is impossible, but not with God;
for all things are possible with God.'"
Mark 10:27