Frances uses electrophotonic imaging (EPI) in her work. The technique was developed by the Russian scientist Dr Konstantin Korotkov in St Petersburg, and today’s Bio-Well device is used by researchers and practitioners worldwide. Its reliability is still debated, which is one reason Frances’s research uses a control group and careful wording. The electrophotonic method has been used to study aspects of the human state, including consciousness and health, as well as water, materials and the environment.

The EPI interpretation system draws on Traditional Eastern Medicine and its links with Western approaches to health and wellbeing. It is based on the idea that the body is organised fractally, as in the Su Jok system from Korea and the approach developed by Peter Mandel in Germany. These systems suggest that a person’s overall energetic profile can be read from their ten fingertips.

Dr Korotkov and his team have developed a three-dimensional model of what they describe as the human energy field. Each EPI image is interpreted as reflecting a person’s characteristics and the internal and external factors that may influence their wellbeing.