A new scientific study seems to have proven a phenomenon that spiritual people have known since the dawn of time: Proof of a spirit inside living beings.
Humans – indeed, all living beings — emit an invisible light that vanishes when they die, which seems to prove that living beings all have an “aura.”
Researchers from the University of Calgary and the National Research Council of Canada published findings in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters showing that humans, mice, plants, and all living beings produce measurable light emissions while alive that vanish after death.
The study tracked what scientists call ultraweak photon emission (UPE) — an extremely faint glow between 1,000 and 1,000,000 times dimmer than the average human eye can detect. Using specialized electron-multiplying charge-coupled device cameras capable of capturing individual photons, researchers imaged four mice for one hour while alive, then again for one hour after their death.
“Our investigation reveals significant contrast between the UPE from live vs dead mice,” wrote lead physicist Vahid Salari and his team.
The mice were kept at body temperature even after death to ensure heat was not a variable.
The results showed a dramatic drop in photon emissions immediately after death. Similar experiments on thale cress and dwarf umbrella tree leaves revealed injured or stressed plant areas glowed significantly brighter than uninjured sections during 16 hours of imaging.
“Our results show that the injury parts in all leaves were significantly brighter than the uninjured parts of the leaves during all 16 hours of imaging,” the researchers reported.
The phenomenon has sparked discussion about whether this represents scientific evidence of auras — the supposed energy fields that some individuals claim to see surrounding living things.
Even in complete darkness, the human eye cannot see their own glow — the light is far too dim for human vision.
Scientists say UPE is produced when cells create molecules, called ROS, as byproducts of metabolism. When ROS levels rise due to stress, aging, illness, or injury, they cause other molecules to become “excited” with excess energy. As these molecules return to their normal state, they release photons –particles of light.
In other words, an aura that can change with mood and wellness.
“Hence, when an organism ceases living, it stops metabolising and thus, the ultraweak photon emission ends,” a study co-author explained.
The science of biophotons has a controversial history stretching back to the 1920s when Russian biologist Alexander Gurwitsch first claimed to detect what he called “mitogenic radiation.” His work attracted enormous interest with over 700 publications worldwide, but several studies in the late 1930s failed to replicate his findings.
But modern research has since documented invisible light emissions from living cells, including cow heart tissue and bacterial colonies, with wavelengths ranging from 200 to 1,000 nanometers.
The authors of the study said they were interested in medical applications of their findings, rather than mystical interpretations. It could provide a noninvasive method of monitoring health in living organisms.
“This could be used to track the condition of a tissue – for example, for use in transplants – or the level of stress an organism is subject to, such as for monitoring crop or forest health,” the authors said