Biophoton Detection Technology: Measuring the Light Your Body Emits

Language: en

You Are Glowing Right Now

At this very moment, as you read these words, your body is emitting light. Not metaphorical light. Not figurative light. Actual photons — particles of electromagnetic radiation in the visible and near-ultraviolet spectrum — are streaming from every cell surface in your body at a rate of roughly a few hundred photons per second per square centimeter of skin.

You cannot see this light. It is approximately 1,000 times too dim for the human eye to detect under normal conditions. But it is there, and it has been measured by some of the most sensitive optical instruments ever built. It is not bioluminescence (like a firefly) or fluorescence (like a highlighter under UV light). It is something fundamentally different — an ultra-weak photon emission that arises from the metabolic processes within your cells, and that carries information about the state of the living system.

This light is called biophoton emission, and its discovery opens a window into a dimension of biology that conventional medicine has barely begun to explore: the body as a light-based communication system.

Fritz-Albert Popp: The Father of Biophoton Research

The modern study of biophotons begins with Fritz-Albert Popp, a German biophysicist at the International Institute of Biophysics in Neuss, Germany. Popp’s journey into biophoton research began, improbably, with cancer research.

In the early 1970s, Popp was studying the effects of ultraviolet (UV) light on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — chemicals known to be carcinogenic. He noticed something puzzling: compounds that caused cancer absorbed UV light at a specific wavelength (380 nm) and then re-emitted it — a process called “photo repair.” Compounds that were structurally similar but non-carcinogenic did not show this behavior.

This led Popp to a radical hypothesis: what if living cells communicate using light? What if the carcinogenic process involves a disruption of this light-based communication?

To test this idea, Popp needed to measure the photons emitted by living cells. The challenge was formidable: biophoton emission is extraordinarily weak — on the order of 10 to 1,000 photons per second per square centimeter. This is far below the threshold of any conventional light detector. Popp needed an instrument capable of counting individual photons.

The Photomultiplier Tube

Popp obtained a photomultiplier tube (PMT) — a vacuum tube device that amplifies the signal from a single photon by a factor of 10 million or more. A PMT works through a cascade of electron multiplication:

1. A single photon strikes a photocathode, releasing one electron.
2. This electron is accelerated toward a series of metal plates called dynodes.
3. At each dynode, the electron’s impact releases 3-5 additional electrons.
4. After 10-14 stages of amplification, the single initial photon has produced a pulse of 10^6 to 10^8 electrons — enough to be measured as a discrete electrical signal.

By placing biological samples in a completely dark chamber equipped with a PMT, Popp could count individual photons emitted by living cells. The instrument effectively turned the invisible light of life into a countable signal.

Popp’s Key Findings

Over the next four decades, Popp and his colleagues made a series of discoveries that constitute the foundation of biophoton science:

All living cells emit photons. Every cell type tested — from bacteria to plant cells to human cells — emits ultra-weak photon emissions in the range of approximately 200-800 nm (near-UV to visible light). The emission rate is typically 10-1,000 photons/sec/cm^2 for surface tissues.

Dead cells do not emit (or emit differently). When cells die, the biophoton emission pattern changes dramatically. In some cases, there is a burst of light at the moment of death (a “death flash”), followed by extinction. This is consistent with biophotons being a product of living metabolic processes rather than a passive physical artifact.

Cancer cells emit differently. Malignant cells show significantly altered biophoton emission compared to healthy cells — typically higher intensity and altered coherence properties. This confirmed Popp’s original hypothesis and suggested that biophoton measurement could potentially be used for cancer detection.

Biophoton emission is coherent. This was Popp’s most controversial and important finding. Using statistical analysis of photon counting data, Popp argued that biophoton emission is not random (like thermal radiation) but coherent — meaning the photons are correlated in time and space, similar to laser light. Coherent light can carry information far more efficiently than incoherent (random) light.

Popp proposed that cells use coherent biophoton emission as an internal communication system — a “biological internet” operating at the speed of light, capable of coordinating the activities of the 37 trillion cells in the human body with a precision that chemical signaling alone cannot explain.

DNA is the primary source. Popp identified DNA as the primary source and receiver of biophotons within the cell. DNA’s structure — a double helix that acts as both an antenna and a resonant cavity — makes it ideally suited for emitting, absorbing, and storing photon energy. Popp proposed that DNA functions as a “biological laser” — a coherent light source that organizes cellular activity.

Biophoton emission follows a hyperbolic decay. When tissue is stimulated with a brief flash of light and then placed in darkness, the subsequent biophoton emission follows a hyperbolic decay curve rather than an exponential decay. This is significant because hyperbolic decay is characteristic of coherent systems, while exponential decay is characteristic of random (chaotic) systems. This mathematical signature provided evidence for the coherent nature of biophoton emission.

Modern Detection Technology

Since Popp’s pioneering work, biophoton detection technology has advanced significantly:

Single-Photon Counting Systems

Modern single-photon counting systems use either photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) or single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) to detect individual photons. These systems achieve:

• Dark count rates below 10 counts per second (the number of false positive detections in complete darkness).
• Quantum efficiency of 20-40% (the percentage of incoming photons that are actually detected).
• Temporal resolution of nanoseconds (the ability to timestamp individual photon arrivals with nanosecond precision).
• Spectral sensitivity from 200-900 nm, covering the UV through visible to near-infrared range.

The key challenge is distinguishing biophotons from background noise. Even in a perfectly dark chamber, there is always some background — thermal emission from the chamber walls, cosmic rays, radioactive decay in the detector material, and electronic noise. Sophisticated statistical methods are required to extract the biological signal from this background.

CCD Cameras for Biophoton Imaging

While PMTs can count photons with high sensitivity and temporal resolution, they cannot create images — they detect the total photon flux from a region without spatial information. For biophoton imaging, researchers use cooled CCD (charge-coupled device) cameras or EMCCD (electron-multiplying CCD) cameras.

These cameras achieve photon sensitivity through:

• Deep cooling. The CCD chip is cooled to -70 to -100 degrees Celsius to reduce thermal noise (dark current) to negligible levels.
• Long exposures. Because biophoton emission is so weak, exposure times of 10-60 minutes are typically required to accumulate enough photons for an image. During this time, the subject must remain completely still in a perfectly dark chamber.
• Electron multiplication. EMCCD cameras amplify the signal from each detected photon before the readout electronics add their noise, achieving effective single-photon sensitivity.

The resulting images show the spatial distribution of biophoton emission across the body surface. These images reveal:

• Bilateral symmetry. Healthy subjects show remarkably symmetric biophoton emission between the left and right sides of the body. Asymmetry correlates with health disturbances.
• Diurnal rhythm. Biophoton emission follows a circadian pattern, with higher emissions during daytime and lower emissions at night. This rhythm is disrupted in certain disease states.
• Regional variation. Different body regions emit at different intensities. The head and hands tend to have higher emission rates, while the trunk has lower rates.
• Spontaneous fluctuations. Biophoton emission is not static — it fluctuates over time, and the characteristics of these fluctuations (their frequency, amplitude, and coherence) carry information about the system’s state.

The 2025 University of Calgary Brain Biophoton Discovery

In a landmark study published in 2025, researchers at the University of Calgary’s Hotchkiss Brain Institute provided direct evidence that neurons in the mammalian brain emit biophotons, and that these photons may play a functional role in neural communication.

Using a highly sensitive detection apparatus built around a cooled EMCCD camera and a fiber-optic light guide implanted near brain tissue in living animal subjects, the team detected photon emissions from active neural tissue at rates significantly above background levels. The key findings included:

Wavelength specificity. The brain biophotons were concentrated in specific wavelength bands (primarily in the blue-green range, 400-500 nm), rather than being broadly distributed across the visible spectrum. This spectral specificity suggests a regulated emission process rather than random metabolic byproduct.

Activity dependence. The biophoton emission rate increased during neural activation — when the brain tissue was processing information, it emitted more light. This correlation between neural activity and photon emission was statistically robust and suggested a functional link.

Myelin as waveguide. The researchers proposed that the myelin sheaths surrounding axons — long thought to function purely as electrical insulators — may also serve as optical waveguides, channeling biophotons along neural pathways. Myelin is translucent and has a refractive index that could support total internal reflection — the same principle used in fiber optic cables.

Implications for neural computation. If confirmed, the discovery that neurons communicate via light in addition to electrical and chemical signals would add an entirely new dimension to our understanding of brain function. Optical communication could be orders of magnitude faster than chemical synaptic transmission, could operate in parallel across multiple wavelengths (like fiber optic multiplexing), and could explain some of the brain’s computational capacities that are difficult to account for by electrical and chemical signaling alone.

This finding connects directly to Popp’s original hypothesis: that coherent light is a fundamental communication medium in living systems. The brain — the most complex biological structure in the known universe — may use biophotonic communication as a high-bandwidth, high-speed channel for the coordination of its 86 billion neurons.

Biophotons and Consciousness

The connection between biophotons and consciousness has been proposed by several researchers, most notably Popp himself and later by researchers like Travis Craddock, Stuart Hameroff, and Jack Tuszynski. The argument proceeds as follows:

The Coherence Argument

Consciousness, whatever else it is, involves the integration of information from across the brain into a unified experience. This is the “binding problem” — how does the brain combine information from the visual cortex, auditory cortex, emotional centers, memory systems, and motor planning areas into a single, coherent experience?

Electrical synchronization (gamma waves) is one candidate mechanism, but it operates at the speed of neural conduction (approximately 1-100 meters per second), which may be too slow to explain the instantaneous quality of conscious integration.

Biophotonic communication, operating at the speed of light (300 million meters per second), could provide the bandwidth and speed needed for instantaneous whole-brain integration. If neurons are both emitting and absorbing photons — and if this emission is coherent (as Popp’s work suggests) — then the brain could be using a light-based communication network that operates millions of times faster than its electrical network.

The Microtubule Connection

Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose have proposed that consciousness arises from quantum processes in microtubules — protein structures inside neurons that form the cell’s structural skeleton. Microtubules are known to have optical properties — they can guide and amplify photons, and they contain tryptophan residues that absorb and re-emit UV photons.

Travis Craddock and Jack Tuszynski have calculated that microtubules could support quantum coherent photon states at biological temperatures, and that networks of microtubules could function as a kind of quantum optical computer. In this model, biophotons are not just metabolic waste — they are the medium of quantum computation in the brain, and consciousness emerges from the coherent quantum optical processes within the microtubule network.

This hypothesis remains highly speculative and is not accepted by mainstream neuroscience. But it illustrates the direction in which biophoton research is pushing our understanding of the relationship between light, matter, and consciousness.

Meditation and Biophoton Emission

Several studies have measured biophoton emission during meditation:

Van Wijk et al. (2005) measured biophoton emission from the hands of subjects before and after meditation. They found that meditation significantly altered the biophoton emission pattern — not simply increasing or decreasing total emission, but changing the spectral composition and temporal dynamics. Specifically, the left-right symmetry of emission improved after meditation, and the coherence properties of the emission increased.

Van Wijk et al. (2008) conducted a larger study using a whole-body biophoton imaging system and found that Transcendental Meditation reduced overall biophoton emission while increasing its coherence — consistent with the interpretation that meditation produces a more ordered, more efficient biological state.

Nakamura et al. (2018) measured biophoton emission from the forehead during various mental states and found that the emission pattern changed with attention, relaxation, and emotional state — suggesting that biophoton emission is sensitive to cognitive and consciousness variables, not just metabolic state.

The shamanic traditions speak of “luminous beings” and “bodies of light.” The yogic traditions describe the “subtle body” as a body of light. The Tibetan Buddhist tradition describes the “rainbow body” — a state in which advanced practitioners at the point of death dissolve their physical body into light. The Christian mystical tradition speaks of saints glowing with an inner light.

Biophoton research does not validate these traditions literally. A few hundred photons per second per square centimeter is not a visible glow. But it does establish a startling fact: living organisms do emit light. This light does carry information. It does change with consciousness states. And the brain may use it as a communication medium.

The traditions were pointing at something real. Science is beginning to measure what they described.

How to Measure: A Practical Guide to Biophoton Detection

For researchers interested in setting up biophoton detection:

Equipment Requirements

Dark room. A completely light-tight chamber is essential. Even a single photon of stray light will overwhelm the biophoton signal. The chamber should be verified using the photon detector itself — background count rate should be below the detector’s specified dark count rate.

Photon detector. For counting studies, a PMT with a dark count rate below 5 counts/second and quantum efficiency above 20% is adequate. For imaging studies, a cooled EMCCD camera with appropriate back-illuminated sensor architecture is required. Key specifications: pixel size 13-16 micrometers, cooling to at least -70 degrees Celsius, electron multiplication gain up to 1,000x.

Optics. Low f-number (fast) lenses collect more light. A 50mm f/1.2 lens is typical for imaging studies. For spectral analysis, a spectrograph or filter wheel allows wavelength-resolved measurements.

Data acquisition. Photon counting requires a multichannel analyzer or time-to-digital converter for temporal analysis. Image acquisition requires software capable of long-exposure accumulation with cosmic ray rejection.

Shielding. In addition to light, the detection chamber should be shielded from electromagnetic interference (which can produce false counts in sensitive detectors) and temperature fluctuations (which affect dark current and detector sensitivity).

Experimental Protocols

Acclimation period. Subjects should sit in complete darkness for at least 15-20 minutes before measurement begins. This allows the initial “delayed luminescence” (DL) — the slow release of photons absorbed during light exposure — to decay to baseline. Some protocols use up to 30 minutes of dark adaptation.

Baseline measurement. Record biophoton emission for at least 10 minutes to establish a stable baseline. Biophoton emission fluctuates naturally, so adequate baseline data is needed for statistical comparison with experimental conditions.

Intervention. Apply the experimental manipulation — meditation instruction, emotional stimulus, physical exercise, healing intervention, or whatever is being studied. Continue recording throughout.

Recovery. Continue recording after the intervention ends to characterize the return to baseline.

Controls. Include control conditions (no intervention, sham intervention) and measure environmental variables (temperature, humidity) that could affect emission.

Data Analysis

Time series analysis. Biophoton count rate over time can be analyzed for trends, periodicities, and statistical properties (Poisson versus super-Poisson statistics, which indicate coherent versus random emission).

Spectral analysis. If wavelength-resolved data is available, the emission spectrum provides information about the biochemical sources of biophotons (mitochondrial oxidative processes, lipid peroxidation, DNA damage and repair).

Spatial analysis. For imaging data, maps of emission intensity across the body surface can be analyzed for symmetry, regional variation, and correlation with known anatomical or energetic (meridian/chakra) structures.

Coherence analysis. The statistical properties of photon arrival times can be analyzed for coherence — temporal correlations that indicate organized (non-random) emission. This is the most technically challenging analysis and the most theoretically important.

The Significance: Light as Life’s Language

Biophoton research occupies a fascinating position at the intersection of biophysics, consciousness science, and the wisdom traditions. It provides empirical evidence for something that mystics, healers, and seers have described throughout human history: living organisms are beings of light.

This is not a metaphor. It is a measurement. Your cells are emitting photons right now. The coherence of that emission reflects the coherence of your biological state. The emission changes with your health, your emotional state, your meditation practice, your consciousness.

The engineering metaphor is exact: biophotons are the diagnostic LEDs of the cellular operating system. When the system is healthy and coherent, the light emission is ordered and symmetric. When the system is stressed or diseased, the emission becomes chaotic and asymmetric. We are only beginning to learn to read these signals, but the instruments exist, the physics is well-understood, and the data is accumulating.

The body is a light-emitting machine. The challenge now is to learn what it is saying.

References and Further Reading

Popp, F. A. (2003). Properties of biophotons and their theoretical implications. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology, 41, 391-402.

Popp, F. A., & Beloussov, L. (2003). Integrative Biophysics: Biophotonics. Springer.

Van Wijk, R. (2014). Light in Shaping Life: Biophotons in Biology and Medicine. Meluna Research.

Van Wijk, E. P. A., Lüdtke, R., & Van Wijk, R. (2008). Differential effects of relaxation techniques on ultraweak photon emission. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 14(3), 241-250.

Van Wijk, R., & Van Wijk, E. P. A. (2005). An introduction to human biophoton emission. Forschende Komplementärmedizin, 12(2), 77-83.

Cifra, M., Fields, J. Z., & Farhadi, A. (2011). Electromagnetic cellular interactions. Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, 105(3), 223-246.

Kobayashi, M., Kikuchi, D., & Okamura, H. (2009). Imaging of ultraweak spontaneous photon emission from human body displaying diurnal rhythm. PLoS ONE, 4(7), e6256.

Kumar, S., Boone, K., Tuszynski, J., Barclay, P., & Simon, C. (2016). Possible existence of optical communication channels in the brain. Scientific Reports, 6, 36508.

Salari, V., Valian, H., Bassereh, H., Bókkon, I., & Barkhordari, A. (2015). Ultraweak photon emission in the brain. Journal of Integrative Neuroscience, 14(3), 419-429.

Bókkon, I. (2005). Dreams and neuroholography: An interdisciplinary interpretation of development of homeotherm state in evolution. Sleep and Hypnosis, 7(2), 61-76.