Humans ’emit mysterious light that disappears when we die’ – as scientists say we really do ‘glow’ with health

HUMANS do actually glow with health, according to scientists, as a new study suggests our bodies emit an extremely faint light that goes out when we die.

It’s not just humans either – but seemingly all life.

J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2025

Contrast in biophoton emissions in four mice, when alive (top) and dead (bottom)[/caption]

J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2025

Emissions of biophotons from four umbrella tree leaves[/caption]

A new experiment on mice and plants, from the University of Calgary and the National Research Council of Canada, found that both lifeforms exhibit physical evidence of an eerie ‘biophoton’.

Biophotons, or ultra-weak photons, are tiny particles of light emitted by living organisms.

But this light – which is so faint it cannot be seen by the naked eye – is extinguished under extreme stress or death, University of Calgary physicist Vahid Salari and his team have claimed.

Researchers found they could capture the biophotons emitting from mouse cells before and after death in the visible band of light.

There was a significant difference in the numbers of these photons in the period before and after the mice were euthanised.

The study was also carried out on thale cress and dwarf umbrella tree leaves, to reveal similar results.

Stressing the plants by crushing them showed strong evidence that reactive oxygen species could in fact be behind the soft glow.

“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 wrote in their report.

A separate 2009 study also suggested that humans are bioluminescent.

“The human body literally glimmers,” study authors wrote at the time.

“The intensity of the light emitted by the body is 1000 times lower than the sensitivity of our naked eyes.”

Salari and his team believe that being able to monitor this healthy glow could eventually provide medical specialists with a powerful, non-invasive research or diagnostics tool.

It could offer a new way to remotely monitor the stress of individual tissues in whole human or animal patients.

Alternatively, it could even work among crops or bacterial samples.

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A separate 2009 study also suggested that humans are bioluminescent[/caption]