Biophotons and the Subtle Energy Body

Biophotons and the Subtle Energy Body

In the grand tapestry of Hermetic philosophy, light plays a central role, representing knowledge, divinity, and the transformational processes that define the universe and the individual. Modern scientific discoveries, such as biophotons—the ultra-weak photons emitted by living cells—offer intriguing insights into the Hermetic understanding of light and its connection to the light body, a concept integral to inner alchemy. 

Subtle Energy: The Light of the Soul

The term light body was popularized extensively by the work of Alice A. Bailey, a prominent theosophist and writer in the early 1900s, but it is also called the subtle body or subtle energy body. Some philosophers make distinctions using these terms, between aspects of the light body, calling the etheric body or the energetic aspect of the light body, the part responsible for maintaining the connection between the physical body and its spiritual counterpart. The astral body in modern esoteric thought, is the part that acts as a vehicle for consciousness to explore non-physical dimensions. There is no standard use and many people apply them interchangeably. In fact, the conceptual origins of the light body go all the way back to ancient Egyptian spiritual practice. 

Ancient Egyptian spirituality introduced the ka and ba as integral aspects of the soul, which together provide a conceptual foundation for the modern understanding of the light body. The ka, often referred to as the vital essence or double, represents the energetic counterpart to the physical body, sustaining life and maintaining the connection between the material and spiritual realms. The ba, on the other hand, embodies the individuality or unique spiritual essence of a person, capable of traveling beyond the physical plane to explore the spiritual dimensions. When harmonized through rituals and spiritual practices, the ka and ba merged into the akh, a luminous and immortal aspect of the self that united with divine wisdom and the cosmic order. These concepts echo the division of the light body into etheric and astral components, as well as the ultimate goal of spiritual ascension found in both Hermetic and modern inner alchemical traditions. 

Biophotons: The Light of Life

Biophotons are weak electromagnetic waves in the visible spectrum emitted by living organisms. First discovered by Alexander Gurwitsch in the 1920s and later validated through advanced photodetection methods, biophotons are not random byproducts of cellular activity but highly ordered phenomena. Researchers like Fritz-Albert Popp have proposed that biophotons play a crucial role in cellular communication, regulation, and coherence.

Properties of Biophotons:

  • Coherence: Biophotons exhibit quantum coherence, behaving more like laser light than ordinary scattered photons. This coherence allows them to carry precise information across biological systems.
  • Biological Communication: Cells emit and absorb biophotons to exchange information, harmonizing complex processes within the organism.
  • Regulation of Life Processes: Biophotons regulate DNA, cellular repair, and metabolic activities, acting as the light language of the body.

Comparison with Animals

Humans emit biophotons, but the intensity and patterns differ significantly from other animals. Scientific research has captured the light emissions of human cells, which is nearly a 1000x lower than in animals.

Aging and Biophoton Emission

Biophoton emissions are intricately linked to metabolic processes and oxidative stress. As we age, our oxidative stress levels tend to increase, leading to measurable changes in biophoton emissions. By monitoring these emissions, scientists could unlock new insights into aging and its effects on cellular activity.

Illness Detection

Biophoton emissions could also reveal your health status. Studies have shown that people with conditions such as cancer, diabetes, jaundice, and MS emit higher levels of biophotons compared to healthy individuals. This groundbreaking discovery opens doors for non-invasive diagnostic tools based on light emissions from the body.

Meditation and Biophoton Emission

Here’s another reason to practice active meditation and inner work: meditation reduces biophoton emissions. Regular meditation not only calms the mind but may also optimize your body’s physiological processes, as reflected in its biophoton emissions.

More Than a Physical Body

In Hermetic philosophy, the properties of biophotons resonate with the idea that light is the medium of divine order and wisdom. 

"Light and life are of one kind and from one nature, and so you cannot separate them from one another." (Corpus Hermeticum I, Poimandres).

This divine light within living beings, bridges the physical and metaphysical realms just as some theorize that biophotons have functions which are interdimensional. The subtle energy body or light body is an essential component of the Great Work—the process of spiritual transformation and unification with the divine. But, what if that biophotons were empirical evidence of our subtle energy? Could we could soon be gaining new insight from this field of study.

The emerging science of biophotons offer a profound reminders that light is not merely a physical phenomenon but may be part of a multidimensional bridge between matter and levels of reality that defy detection by our senses, but which quantum physics frequently brings to light. 

It's a romantic idea, but Matthew Debow suggested in his lecture on quantum photonics that maybe the phosphenes we see when we press on our eyelids, might even be the detection of this very subtle light.