Once, when I was in the military, we were returning to base from training, packed in the back of a truck on the highway. Up ahead, a car carrying a young mother and her two small children flipped suddenly, ejecting all three. None had been wearing seat belts.

We pulled over at once, leapt out, and moved to render aid, forming a barrier with our bodies to protect the scene from gawkers. The children, miraculously, suffered only scrapes and bruises. The mother was different.

When I looked at her, I knew. She was no longer with us.

But how did I know? Her body was still there, her form intact, yet something unmistakable was gone. It wasn’t a rational deduction from injuries, because I had seen others grievously hurt but alive. It was something subtler: a kind of absence, as if the light had gone out of her.

Biophotons, The Radiance of Life

For centuries, mystics and poets have spoken of an inner light, a subtle glow said to surround the living. Often dismissed as metaphor, or worse, as superstition, such imagery belonged to the realm of devotion and poetry rather than science. But now, in an unexpected turn, modern research has confirmed that our bodies do, in fact, emit biophotons—faint, ultra-weak particles of light produced by our cells during normal metabolic processes.

These emissions are invisible to the naked eye, yet they can be captured with sensitive cameras. They rise and fall with our circadian rhythms, peak in the afternoon, and vanish when life ceases. Suddenly, the ancient intuition of light as a sign of vitality acquires a scientific echo.

“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” – Leonard Cohen

Science Meets the Glow

The phenomenon was first observed in the 1920s by Russian biologist Alexander Gurwitsch, who reported a strange “mitogenetic radiation” from onion root cells. His work was controversial, yet in the 1970s German physicist Fritz-Albert Popp provided convincing experimental evidence of these ultra-weak photon emissions across many living tissues.

The most striking confirmation came in 2009, when Masaki Kobayashi and his team at the Tohoku Institute of Technology in Japan used cooled CCD cameras to capture human biophoton emissions. They discovered daily fluctuations: our bodies glow faintly but measurably, with the face radiating most strongly in the late afternoon before dimming at night.

In concrete terms, our light is exceedingly subtle—roughly a thousand times weaker than the threshold of human vision. This is not the visible aura claimed in spiritualist circles. And yet, the fact remains: life glows.

A Poetic Truth with Scientific Roots

To say, “she is radiant” is not only poetic—it is physiologically accurate. Our bodies shine, however faintly, as a consequence of the energy of being alive. Suddenly, a metaphor becomes, at least in part, a measurable fact.

This overlap between scientific finding and poetic intuition is not new. The psalmist sings of God as “clothed in light as with a garment.” The Gospel of John declares, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” Across cultures, light has symbolized truth, vitality, and presence. Now, physics has given us another reason to take the language of light seriously.

“God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” – 1 John 1:5

Faith, Reason, and the Language of Light

The discovery of biophotons invites us into the old conversation between faith and reason, science and religion. As Thomas Williams notes in his lectures on medieval philosophy, thinkers like Augustine, Aquinas, and Anselm would have been baffled by the modern assumption that science and religion must be at war. For them, reason illuminated faith, and faith gave depth to reason.

So when modern instruments reveal that we literally glow, it need not threaten religious imagination—it can deepen it. Christianity’s language of God as light, or of Christ shining in the darkness, may not have been scientifically literal. Yet, in light of biophoton research, such imagery resonates with new force.

But we must also be cautious. As Lawrence Principe reminds us in Science and Religion, simplistic “warfare” narratives distort history. Science and faith have often existed in complex relationship: sometimes conflictual, more often mutually illuminating. The glow of life is a scientific reality. Whether it is also a sign of divine presence is a matter for theology and philosophy, not experimental replication.

The Science Wars and the Temptation of Certainty

The late 20th-century “Science Wars” remind us how fraught claims about knowledge and truth can be. Is scientific knowledge an objective disclosure of reality, or merely a socially constructed set of models? Postmodern thinkers challenged science’s monopoly on truth, while scientists defended their claim to unique access to reality.

Biophoton research sits uncomfortably in this debate. On one hand, the data are real: instruments record measurable emissions. On the other, interpretation is delicate. It is tempting to leap from “cells emit light” to “auras exist” or “life energy proves the soul.” That is where skepticism serves as a safeguard. Scientific humility requires us to acknowledge the limits of what biophotons prove.

Here is where philosophy matters. Knowledge, as Plato and Aristotle knew, is more than opinion but less than absolute certainty. The glow of life is not an aura of mystical energy, but neither is it meaningless. It is a subtle, fragile radiance reminding us that to be alive is to shine.

Quantum Resonances and the Mystery of Light

From a quantum perspective, the resonance deepens. Modern physics tells us that matter and energy are interchangeable, and light is the most fundamental mediator of that relationship. The quantum bit—the “qubit”—is literally carried in light particles. John Wheeler’s famous dictum, “It from bit,” suggests that physical reality itself may be grounded in information and light.

This gives theological reflection fresh texture. If God is both light and life, as Scripture proclaims, then the discovery that life literally shines—even imperceptibly—echoes in ways both scientific and spiritual. Yet the echo must not be mistaken for identity. The photons emitted by our metabolism are not evidence for divinity; but they may serve as symbols that awaken wonder at the mystery of being.

“All things are in flux, and nothing stays still.” – Heraclitus

The Fragile Radiance of Being

Biophoton research has also revealed correlations between light and health. Increased oxidative stress, such as in certain diseases, can elevate emissions. Conversely, calm states—meditation, relaxation—seem to stabilize them. Aging appears to dim the glow. These correlations suggest possible medical applications: biophoton imaging may one day serve as a diagnostic tool for metabolic disorders, cancer, or neurodegenerative diseases.

But beyond utility lies meaning. To live is to shine. To die is to go dark. In this sense, the disappearance of light at death is not only a scientific observation but also a profound metaphor.

This is where we must hold wonder and caution together. It is easy to overreach, to project onto biophotons mystical or paranormal interpretations. Psychology reminds us that confirmation bias inclines us to see what we want to see. Skepticism protects us from credulity. Yet cynicism robs us of awe.

Perhaps the wisest stance is the one the mystics have always counseled: openness held lightly. To marvel, without needing to explain everything away. To allow wonder, without demanding certainty.

Conclusion: Living as Light-Bearers

The discovery of biophotons bridges worlds: the mystic’s language of radiance, the scientist’s instruments, the poet’s metaphor, and the theologian’s imagery of God as light. Each contributes something valuable, and none exhausts the mystery.

We are radiant, though faintly so. That is a fact of physics. But it is also a summons. Perhaps our deepest calling is to amplify each other’s fragile glow, to reflect back the light while we have the chance.

“Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” – Matthew 5:16

To live, then, is to shine. And to live well is to help others shine. The science of biophotons does not prove the soul, but it gives us one more reason to wonder, to honor life as luminous, and to cherish the fragile radiance that will, all too soon, be extinguished.

Questions for Reflection

• Have you ever sensed, without instruments or proof, that someone was no longer alive? What might that intuition reveal about the mystery of life and death?
• If science confirms that our bodies emit a faint light, how should that reshape the way we use words like “radiant” or “glow”?
• How can we remain open to wonder at discoveries like biophotons without falling into superstition or overreach?

Excerpt

On a highway long ago, I looked into the face of a young mother who had just died, and I knew she was gone. Science now tells us that living bodies literally emit light—biophotons—fading at death. What mystics called radiance, researchers now measure, inviting wonder, faith, and humility.

References

• Gurwitsch, A. (1920s): Early reports of “mitogenetic radiation.”
• Popp, F.-A. (1970s): Confirmed ultra-weak photon emissions in living cells.
• Kobayashi, M., Kikuchi, D., & Okamura, H. (2009). Imaging of ultraweak spontaneous photon emission from human body displaying diurnal rhythm. PLoS ONE, 4(7): e6256.
• Principe, L. (2006). Science and Religion.
• Goldman, S. (2006). Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know It.
• Schumacher, B. (2015). The Science of Information.