Living Organisms Stop Emitting Light When They Die: What Biophotons Reveal About The Future of Health

What if the body wasn’t just alive, but glowing and humming with invisible fields of energy?

What if the energy systems described in ancient healing traditions, qi, prana, or the light body, weren’t spiritual metaphors, but measurable, bioelectromagnetic realities?

And what if science is finally catching up?

Thanks to breakthroughs in biophoton imaging, bioelectric field theory, and quantum-informed biology, researchers are beginning to uncover what ancient cultures sensed long ago:

Health is not only biochemical… It is field-based.

We Emit Light While Alive

A 2025 study titled “Imaging Ultraweak Photon Emission from Living and Dead Mice and from Plants under Stress” captured a profound visual truth:

Using ultra-sensitive cameras, researchers imaged ultraweak photon emission from mice and plants. This light is emitted spontaneously by all living systems as a byproduct of oxidative metabolism and reactive oxygen species (ROS).

• Live mice glowed with a steady stream of visible-wavelength photons.

• After death, the light faded completely, despite no change in body temperature.

• Plants under stress or injury emitted more light, especially when treated with benzocaine, a chemical anesthetic.

Kobayashi et al. (2025). Imaging Ultraweak Photon Emission from Living and Dead Mice

And no.

This wasn’t infrared heat related to body temperature.

This is a silent signature of life.

What the Ancients Taught: The “Light Body” Revisited

Long before photon detectors or imaging chambers, ancient traditions described the body as surrounded and interpenetrated by a luminous field of energy.

• In Indian yogic texts, this was the pranamaya kosha, the sheath of life force energy.

• In Chinese medicine and acupuncture, it was qi flowing through meridians, balancing health.

• In Kabbalah and mystical Christianity, it was the aura, the halo, the radiant body.

They were precise maps of energetic anatomy, discovered through practices like meditation, acupuncture, and healing touch.

Modern biophysics now affirms: Living systems regulate themselves through fields of energy and information.

And one of the most visible signs of this field? Biophotons.

But light is only one part of the story. Electricity plays a role just as important, if not more foundational.

The Bioelectric Code: Michael Levin’s Radical Discovery

While photons may reflect the state of vitality, it turns out that electrical fields may regulate it.

Dr. Michael Levin, a developmental biologist at Tufts University, proposes a stunning theory:

Cellular behavior is controlled not only by genes, but by bioelectric fields that shape tissue identity, repair, and cancer development.

Each cell maintains an electrical gradient through ion channels and pumps. Together, cells create bioelectric fields that act like a “pattern language” guiding cellular growth, identity, and integration.

Levin’s team induced tumors in frog embryos using cancer genes. But instead of editing the genes or killing the tumor cells, they restored normal electrical patterns using ion-channel drugs.

The result: The cancer cells stopped dividing uncontrollably… and re-integrated back into healthy tissue, even though the tumor genes were still present.

This suggests that:

• Bioelectric fields are top-down regulators of cell behavior.

• Cancer may be a communication breakdown, not just a genetic defect.

• Restoring the field reprograms the cells, without editing DNA.

The Biofield: Where Biophotons and Bioelectricity Meet

So what happens when you combine the concepts of fields, biophotons, and bioelectrity? That’s the biofield.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health defines it as:

“A complex, dynamic field of energy and information that governs homeostasis and healing.”

The biofield encompasses:

• Biophoton emissions: light from cellular metabolism

• Bioelectric gradients: voltage patterns guiding development

• Magnetic and acoustic signals: from tissues, fascia, and fluids

• Possibly even quantum entanglement, as seen in emerging models of consciousness

The biofield isn’t a single substance, it’s a multi-layered orchestration.
When coherent, the system is alive, adaptive, and healing.
When disrupted, illness emerges.

This aligns perfectly with ancient traditions that spoke of energy flow, coherence, and balance as the keys to well-being.

Modern Biofield Therapies in Action

In a 2020 study from the University of Virginia, scientists exposed inflamed mouse intervertebral spinal disc cells to Reiki, a hands-on energy healing modality.

They measured both:

• Biophoton output

• Gene expression for tissue repair

The outcome?

• Photon emission increased significantly after Reiki (vs. sham).

• Healing genes like collagen II and aggrecan were upregulated.

Meaning this energy healing practice, infused with intention, produced both measurable light changes and biological repair.

Other past studies support this:

• Biofield practitioners emit higher palm light (UPE) than controls.

• Meditation can regulate brainwave-coherent UPE emissions.

• Touch, intention, and emotion modulate field activity in plants, animals, and humans.

Rethinking Health: From Chemistry to Coherence?

What if health isn't just molecules and genes… but broader, field-based coherence?

Here’s the emerging vision:

• Health = coherence. The biofield is orderly, synchronized, and radiant.

• Illness = decoherence. Signals break down. Light becomes chaotic. Fields collapse.

• Healing = restoration. Through energy practices, intention, light, and sound, the field is rebalanced, often before structural changes occur.

This changes everything:

• Diagnostics may involve imaging photon fields or voltage gradients.

• Treatment may include field-modulating tools like light therapy, hands-on healing, and frequency-based medicine.

• Prevention becomes about maintaining biofield integrity through meditation, breathwork, community, nature, and inner alignment.

Sources:

• Kobayashi et al. (2025). Imaging Ultraweak Photon Emission from Living and Dead Mice

• Levin, M. (2021). Bioelectricity and Cancer as a Problem of Scaling the Cellular Self

• Kent et al. (2020). Quantifying Biofield Therapy Through Biophoton Emission

• Rubik et al. (2015). Biofield Science and Healing

• Qi, B. (2023). TCM Meridian Theory and Biophotonic Mechanisms

• Popp, F.A. et al. Biophoton Emission and Coherent Cellular Regulation