The gut is an integral part of the human ecosystem. If you have been following along in the Your Body is Amazing Series (start here) so far, you will know the truth: Nature is Fractal. We just function at different scales. We are more walking, talking ecosystems than individual human beings.
The microbiome is incredibly diverse! As I mentioned last week, we are made up of almost 40 trillion cells and about 100 trillion more bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that make up the microbiome. These microorganisms collectively weigh about 2 to 6 pounds.
To put this in perspective, each human being has roughly 20,000 genes that make up our DNA. While that might seem like a lot, the fleas that your dog might get have about 50% more than that. If that’s not surprising enough- over 99% of the DNA material in our body is non-human. Most of it is microbial.
“If you include all the genes from bacteria along with your own, only about 10 percent of the genes in your body are human, with the rest from the gut microbes. And what bacteria you have can be quite different from person to person.” -Jeremy Nicholson, Imperial College London (Nature, April 2008)
Each person’s microbiome is unique, like a microbial fingerprint. The composition of the microbiome can be influenced by factors such as light environment, nutrition, sleep, nnEMF exposure, environment, and general lifestyle.
It is now well-understood that the gut -or more formerly, the enteric nervous system- is referred to as the “second brain.”
What Happens in Vagus…
The vagus nerve serves as a key component of the parasympathetic nervous system, overseeing vital bodily functions such as mood regulation, immune response, digestion, and heart rate. It forms a crucial link between the brain and the gastrointestinal tract, transmitting information about the inner organs’ status to the brain through afferent fibers.
But this connection isn’t what you would call “balanced.” Yes, it is a two-way system, but 90% of the fibers in the vagus nerve transmit information from the gut to the brain rather than the reverse. An intriguing aspect is the enteric nervous system’s ability to autonomously control gut behavior, operating independently from the brain in your head. Just like your brain, the enteric nervous system employs more than 30 neurotransmitters, with a whopping 95% of the body’s serotonin and 50% of the dopamine concentrated in the bowels.
Promising evidence suggests that stimulating the vagus nerve could be an effective supplementary treatment for conditions like treatment-resistant depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and inflammatory bowel disease. This stimulation targets specific areas in the brainstem that play pivotal roles in major psychiatric conditions, including mood and anxiety disorders.
However, you don’t need to go to lengths like this. There are plenty of ways to stimulate the vagus nerve, including singing, humming, chanting, gargling, cold therapy, meditation, exercise, sun exposure, and simply socializing with other human beings.
There is also an incredible amount of networking in the gut. The nerve connections total over 100 million—surpassing the counts in both the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system. The intricate processes of breaking down food, absorbing nutrients, and expelling waste involve chemical processing, mechanical mixing, and rhythmic muscle contractions propelling contents along the digestive tract.
Gut-Brain Connection
Scientists have studied the connection between feelings in the brain and the gut. Studies carried out over decades have revealed certain areas of the brain are more active when people feel fear or happiness, for example. There are signals from the gut that reach the brain as well. IThese signals can reach multiple regions of the brain, including the insula, limbic system, prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus.
One revealing experiment carried out on this subject was known as the “forced swimming experiment.” The study consisted of placing mice in a container of water too deep for it to reach the bottom and stand. This forced the mice to swim desperately to make it to dry land. These mice were clocked and tracked to see how long they could last swimming before they could swim no longer. While this may sound morbid, the goal of this study was to understand how far these mice would go before succumbing to exhaustion and meet their untimely demise.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, depressed mice did not swim for long. Instead, they eventually went idle, as they awaited their imminent deaths. Based on these findings, the scientists suggested inhibitory signals are more efficiently transmitted in their brains than motivational ones. Mice that show signs if depression can be used to test out new antidepressant drugs- if they swim longer following a treatment trial while on the new medication, it is a sign the drug may be working.
A similar study was done to take this concept one step further. This time, instead of an antidepressant, the researchers injected the mice with Lactobacillus rhamnosus, a bacteria strain with known benefits in the gut (a probiotic strain). This idea was novel back in 2011, when the study was conducted. What the researchers found is that the mice that contained the Lactobacillus strain were indeed more motivated and swam for a longer time than the mice that did not.
On top of that, the mice with the improved gut flora also had less circulating stress hormones in their bloodstreams, better performance in memory, and improved learning ability.
To bring it all home, the last step consisted of scientists severing the vagus nerve, which, among other things, is responsible for transmitting signals from the brain to the gut and vice versa. When the vagus nerve was severed, there was no difference in performance between the two groups of mice.
A Light Story… in the Gut?
We talk about energy often, but I think most of us have a very other-worldly or etheric connotation of energy. In the context of this series, we are literally talking about solar power.
How this works on Earth is extraordinary. When the sun emits light, it is the result of nuclear reactions happening within itself. The result is putting out these MASSIVE electromagnetic fields in all directions. What’s crazy about this phenomenon is that there is no thermal consequence of this in space.
Nevertheless, the electromagnetic field is pulsed from the sun and eventually reaches the surface of the Earth’s atmosphere and we get something we experience as heat. In other words, this light energy emitted by the sun is translated into thermal energy.
Photosynthesis
There’s a reason we started the series on your body with plant life. We mammals are inseparably bound to plant life and Nature through photosynthesis and cellular respiration. For photosynthesis to occur, plants capture light through photosynthesis to produce carbohydrates.
As you are aware, most plant leaves come in various shades of green, and this is due to pigments called chlorophyll. The word comes from the Greek words chloros (green) and phyllon (leaf). There are six types of chlorophyll in Nature, but plants primarily use two: chlorophyll A and chlorophyll B.
As you can see from the picture above, chlorophyll A absorbs mostly violet and orange light. Chlorophyll B absorbs mostly blue and yellow light. They both absorb light of other wavelengths, just with less intensity.
You might also notice that neither chlorophyll absorbs green light. Instead, they reflect it, which is why leaves appear green to the naked eye.
As you can tell from the structures of chlorophyll A (left) and chlorophyll B (right), they look incredibly similar. In fact, they only differ in a substituent of the porphyrin ring. For chlorophyll A it is a methyl group (-CH3) and for chlorophyll B it is an aldehyde group (-CHO). You can see this on the top of the diagram. This change alone is enough to significantly change the absorption spectrum of these two molecules.
You might also notice the ring-shaped structure at the top. This is called a porphyrin ring, and it contains a magnesium ion in the center.
Porphyrins are a group of organic compounds that play a crucial role in various biological processes. They are characterized by a large, cyclic structure composed of four modified pyrrole rings linked together. The core structure is known as a porphine.
One of the most well-known porphyrins is heme, which is an essential component of hemoglobin, the protein responsible for transporting oxygen in red blood cells. Heme contains an iron ion at its center and gives blood its red color. In chlorophyll, the iron is swapped for a magnesium atom, and therefore changes the color and function.
Porphyrins themselves are known to have semiconductive properties.
Porphyrins have been studied for their potential in photodynamic therapy, a medical treatment that utilizes light to activate photosensitizing agents, including certain porphyrins, to destroy targeted cells, such as cancer cells.
The electronic structure of porphyrins makes them interesting for applications in organic electronics and molecular electronics.
For example, porphyrins have been investigated as light-absorbing materials in organic solar cells. Their conjugated structure allows for efficient absorption of light in the visible and near-infrared regions.
Porphyrin-based compounds have been explored for their potential use in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) due to their ability to emit light.
The average human body contains approximately 3 to 4 grams of heme, with the majority (about 2.5 grams) found in hemoglobin, the protein responsible for transporting oxygen in red blood cells. The rest is distributed in myoglobin, cytochromes, and other heme-containing proteins.
The Light Within
Plants use these chlorophylls to capture energy from the sun and convert it into the carbohydrates they produce. They take the CO2 and water from the environment (and that animals give off) and transform it into the oxygen and carbohydrates animals need. Carbohydrates consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms — each carrying electrons.
Mitochondria break down carbohydrates and fats into acetyl-CoA, releasing energy in the form of electrons. The breakdown of carbon molecules releases electrons, which are the source of energy in the body.
This is also an important point: mitochondria don’t really care what you’re eating because at the end of the day. They want the electrons, regardless of if they are from fats or carbohydrates.
That acetyl-CoA then enters the Krebs Cycle and undergoes cellular respiration (via NADH and FADH2) and creates ATP. We’re told ATP is the primary human energy source, but we are now learning that this might have been an erroneous idea (see the work of Gilbert Ling to start). We are starting to realize that it is all the electricity that is released during the breakdown of these carbon molecules- the electrons.
These electrons house the frequencies of light absorbed by the plant during its growth.
Upon digesting carbohydrates, the body channels the electrons to my mitochondria’s electron transport chains. Here, the captured light energy in each electron is released.
The emitted light serves as an infrared signal, informing the mitochondria about the current season.
This released light prompts optimal spacing of ETC respiratory proteins for electron tunneling and biophoton ROS signaling.
And our cells are LOADED with mitochondria. The typical animal cell representation may look something like this below, where there may be a few mitochondria present.
This image really makes a cell look like a bag of water with some neat little proteins floating around. But this is not reality. Textbooks can’t use accurate depictions because there are so many mitochondria that you wouldn’t be able to see anything else! Mitochondria can take up as much as 25% of the cell volume, and cells contain from 1000 to 2500 mitochondria per cell!
And what’s more, the electromagnetic field produced by mitochondria is incredibly efficient at emitting light. This is why when you come into close contact with someone, you can literally give off light to another human being because your electromagnetic field emits anywhere from 6-8 feet from your body in all directions.
Light Cycles Are NOT Just About Food Either
Optimal functioning, both for plants and animals, requires a reliance on a well-maintained circadian rhythm. In animal cells, we have 100,000 tasks happening per second. The circadian rhythm is primarily responsible for coordinating said tasks. Even mitosis cycles are influenced by the day-night cycles.
This is why your light environment is so important. The light in our environment (regardless of whether it is natural or artificial) enters through the eyes and travels to the master clock in our brain – the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). The SCN is the central timekeeper in the brain directly linked to the retina of our eyes. It diligently relays the time of day to every cell throughout the body, ensuring synchronization of their tasks.
The light entering our eyes, particularly blue light frequencies, serves as a vital cue for the brain to discern the time of day, as these frequencies reliably shift from sunrise to sunset.
As you might imagine, an unnatural light environment negatively affects these rhythms. Unnatural and unchanging spectrums of light like those found in bulbs and screens cause chaos at the cellular level.
Natural light, on the other hand, corrects this. Regardless of the weather, its inherent frequencies effectively communicate the precise time of day, facilitating the synchronization and coordination of my cellular tasks.
At night, the lack of light is key. It allows the pineal gland to produce melatonin in the right time and quantity, preserving the integrity of the circadian rhythm until the break of dawn.
You Are a Light Being
In the 1970s, Dr. Fritz Albert Popp coined the term “biophotons,” or what he referred to as “ultraweak” photonic (light) emissions given off by cells during reactions. According to Dr. Popp and Dr. Niggli, biophotons contain important information which can impact vital bodily processes. Biophotons can provide order and regulation which can improve health.
Biophotonics is a field within quantum biology. It explores the interaction between single-photons and biological matter to gain insights into the internal mechanisms of cells and tissues in living organisms. It stands out as a highly effective approach for comprehending cell function by integrating molecular activities within living cells. Popp’s theory primarily associates DNA as the most likely source of biophoton emission, and the source of our inner light.
The term “biological emission of photons” (biophotons) is employed to characterize the continuous ultraweak emission (1-100 photons/sec/cm2) of coherent photons from living systems. Popp conceptualized it as a quantum biological phenomenon with bio-informational characteristics, separate from the non-coherent emission of photons resulting from metabolic by-products, such as thermal radiation, bioluminescence, or chemiluminescence induced by radical reactions, oxidation, and similar processes.
Dr Popp also found that not only do cells emit light, but they absorb it.
Biophotons are also emitted from free radicals during cellular stress. Since enzymes and antioxidants typically neutralize reactive oxygen molecules and free radicals to prevent cell damage, a healthy cell tends to emit only a minimal number of photons, perhaps just a few tens per minute.
A New Model- No More Billiard Balls
It is helpful to think of photons as the conductor of the body’s orchestra. Depending on the frequency of light, they perform different functions.
Veljko Veljkovic, who now heads the Center for Multidisciplinary Research and Engineering, Institute of Nuclear Sciences Vinca. She dared to ask the question that has forever puzzled cellular biologists:
What is it that enabled the tens of thousands of different kinds of molecules in the organism to recognize their specific targets?
Traditional biochemistry tells us that a cell is a bag of molecules dissolved in water, where chance encounters and random collisions lead complementary-shaped molecules to lock onto each other, facilitating biochemical reactions.
This is the “billiard ball” or “lock-and-key”model we all learn in biochemistry today. Molecules are just floating around randomly, hoping to bump into the right partner for a reaction to occur. Considering that there are 100,000 reactions happening per second in a cell, this model seems like a bit of a stretch.
This has been modernized to include the ‘’induced fit’ hypothesis, allowing molecules to adjust shapes slightly upon contact- to try and make sense of this. But it still falls short.
This model is supposed to explain how enzymes can recognize their substrates, how antibodies disarm specific invaders in the immune system, and proteins engaging with partner molecules.
There is simply no way this model can account for 100,000 reactions happening in every cell per second.
Instead, Veljkovic proposed an alternative model. In this model, each molecule emits a unique electromagnetic field, enabling it to “sense” the field of its complementary counterpart. It’s as if there’s a rhythmic dance in the cellular medium, with molecules moving to the music supplied by biophotons.
This can actually work if we worked in a fashion similar to that of semiconductors and that water has a fourth crystal lattice phase to be a medium for communication. Turns out, that’s what actually happens, and it is explored in more detail in previous blogs.
But as for biophotons playing a role…
“”Veljkovic and Cosic proposed that molecular interactions are electrical in nature, and they take place over distances that are large compared with the size of molecules. Cosic later introduced the idea of dynamic electromagnetic field interactions, that molecules recognize their particular targets and vice versa by electromagnetic resonance. In other words, the molecules send out specific frequencies of electromagnetic waves which not only enable them to ‘see’ and ‘hear’ each other, as both photon and phonon modes exist for electromagnetic waves, but also to influence each other at a distance and become ineluctably drawn to each other if vibrating out of phase (in a complementary way).”
“There are about 100,000 chemical reactions happening in every cell each second. The chemical reaction can only happen if the molecule which is reacting is excited by a photon… Once the photon has excited a reaction it returns to the field and is available for more reactions… We are swimming in an ocean of light.” – The Real Bioinformatics Revolution
Biophotons and Your Health
Obviously, this would be difficult to see, but with the advent of photomultipliers in the 1980s, Popp was able to make these connections.
Biophoton/ultraweak photon emission originates from the relaxation of electronically excited states within the components of living cells. They are typically associated with the presence of oxidative metabolism, like cellular respiration in the mitochondria. These metabolic processes can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), which play a role in regulating a diverse range of biochemical and physiological functions, including cell-signaling, a healthy immune response, and cellular adaptation.
The emission of biophotons serves as an indicator of the pathophysiological condition related to mitochondrial energy (ATP) production and susceptibility to oxidative stress. This susceptibility arises from an excess production of ROS or a deficiency in antioxidant protection.
Ultraweak Photon Emission (UPE) or Biophoton Emission (BPE) describes the continuous and spontaneous emission of light from all biological systems, including humans, because of metabolic activities, without external excitation or enhancement. This emission occurs in the visible and UV part of the electromagnetic spectrum at ultra-low intensities, ranging from 10-16 to 10-18 W/cm2.
The coherent emission of biophotons is intricately linked to energy and information transfer processes within biological organisms and has been associated with the functioning of DNA and gene regulation. Various proposed mechanisms address the production, emission, and absorption of biophotons, spanning metabolic and homeostatic processes, biorhythms, intracellular and intercellular communication, cell growth and differentiation, as well as the regulation of biochemical and morphogenetic processes, microtubule function, and more.
This phenomenon has been experimentally validated by numerous governmental and university research laboratories across a spectrum of living entities, including unicellular organisms (like bacteria), separate cell cultures (exhibiting photon communication leading to synchronization of emission patterns), tumor cells (displaying distinct photon emission patterns compared to normal cells), tissues, organs, plants, animals, and humans.
Biophotons emit light characterized by a high degree of order, essentially constituting biological “laser” light. This type of light exhibits minimal “noise” and maintains an exceptionally stable intensity. You do not see the typical fluctuations observed in ordinary light. The stability of its field strength allows for the superposition of waves, enabling constructive and destructive interference effects not commonly observed in conventional light.
As for the differentiation in photon emission between health and disease, relative studies concern the effect of microbial infections in biological systems, the correlation with states of health, and new methods of interpretation and diagnosis in pathological states such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.
Further experimental studies have shown that ultraweak photon emission from the surface of the human skin is emitted in the visual and in the infrared spectrum and is also strongly correlated to electrodermal activity (Popp et al., 2006 ).
As it pertains to cncer, Pokorny et al. found that the use of near-field electrical measurements, besides the far-field method of ultraweak photon emission, utilizes frequency selective (resonant) absorption of electromagnetic waves in malignant tumors.
Healing with Light
Believe it or not, NASA, of all places, has come across some interesting research with light and healing. Robert O. Becker, actually noticed this phenomenon as well and mentions it in his book, The Body Electric. He was fascinated that when Russian astronauts were sent to space, they would seem to age faster, and their connective tissue would break down around 19x faster than it would on the planet’s surface.
NASA also found that indeed, wounds heal slower, bones atrophy, and sometimes minor injuries cease healing altogether while in space. Over time, NASA developed light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to treat wounds while in space.
Our bodies are able to produce their own internal light to heal, and this was something Fritz Popp was fascinated by.
He found, while analyzing various chemicals, that the ones that “scrambled” light at 380nm (UVA) were carcinogens. However, ones that allowed 380nm light to pass through were not. He also noted that photorepair tends to work most efficiently at 380nm. It is well known that microbes can repair themselves hours after 99% of them are “killed” via UV light. You can almost entirely repair the damage in a single day just by illuminating the remainder with the same wavelength at a much weaker intensity. To this day, scientists don’t understand this phenomenon, called photorepair, but no one has disputed it.
Popp also knew that patients with xeroderma pigmentosum eventually die of skin cancer because their photorepair system can’t repair solar damage. He was also struck by the fact that photorepair works most efficiently at 380 nm – the same frequency that the cancer-causing compounds react to and scramble light.
He also found that if the light was blocked in the body, cancer tends to follow. Most importantly, he found that our own damaged skin cells emit biophotons.
What is most interesting perhaps is this: dis-eased or damaged plant cells emit less chlorophyll, but more biophotons.
The UV Light Inside
The cells inside your body and the microbes inside you can create UV light. But before we get to that, a quick refresher:
In broad terms, solar radiation can be categorized into three main types:
- Ultraviolet Radiation (shortest wavelength, highest frequency)
- Visible Light
- Infrared Radiation (longest wavelength, lowest frequency)
UV radiation can be further classified into three subcategories:
- Long-wave ultraviolet rays (UVA) — 320-380 nm
- Middle-wave ultraviolet rays (UVB) — 280-320 nm
- Short-wave ultraviolet rays (UVC) — 100-280 nm
While certain modern lamps and tools, such as welding tools, can generate UV radiation, the primary source is the sun.
Prolonged contact with the shortest wavelengths, UVC (100-280 nm), can result in harm to both the cornea and the lens. But these wavelengths are uncommon in Nature due to their absorption by the upper atmosphere.
Extended exposure to UVB (280-320nm) wavelengths can lead to lens damage and welders’ eyes (a sensation akin to having sand in the eyes). This type of mid UV light is found in both sunlight and certain industrial settings.
UVA, with wavelengths between 320 and 380 nm, is ubiquitous in outdoor environments and interacts with specific opsins in the eye. Prolonged exposure to UVA may result in fatigue or snow blindness.
The critical range lies within 320-379 nm wavelengths, which can cause biological issues. 380nm UV light holds a special significance in biology. It aids in cell damage regeneration through the involvement of melatonin. It’s essential to understand the distinct effects of these UV wavelengths on biological systems.
Quantum Coherence
When cells are in a healthy state, they emit light that is highly coherent (i.e. synchronized with one another).
Quantum coherence means that the involved biophotons can cooperate with one another and act together. These wave-particles not only sense each other, but they can become mutually interlinked by varying light bands of electromagnetic fields. More importantly, they can communicate and give feedback to one another.
Think of a beautiful orchestra. All the biophotons are playing the same song together, but each is playing its own particular instrument to contribute to the whole.
It becomes apparent that this grand biophotonic emission forms an exquisite communication system in the body where information is transferred to cells throughout the body — and can also be transferred to other human bodies nearby.
The Gut Connections
Our bodies are intricately designed to regenerate a completely new gut lining every 2-5 days. The gut lining and the microbes inside are reliant on the day/night cycles of our local environment.
An important connection: cell division- necessary for repairing “leaky gut”- predominantly takes place at night, in the absence of light. This is why chronic exposure to blue light at night and/or a lack of circadian syncing to sunrise exacerbates gut issues.
This is why if there is circadian mismatch, it can affect the healing ability of the gut.
Thanks to Bosman et al., we now know that UVB light alone can lead to shifts in the microbiome and increase microbial diversity- especially those who have low levels of vitamin D (who did not supplement with vitamin D). Just with light!
Interestingly, skin UVB exposure significantly increased gut microbial diversity, but only in 12 of the subjects, who were not taking vitamin D supplements during the winter study.
“This is the first study to show that humans with low 25(OH)D serum levels display overt changes in their intestinal microbiome in response to NB-UVB skin exposure and increases in 25(OH)D levels, suggesting the existence of a novel skin-gut axis that could be used to promote intestinal homeostasis and health.”
The lead author, Else Bosman, mentioned…
“We found that vitamin D production was the main driver of the shift in the microbiome. It is well known that UVB light produces vitamin D and we now are starting to understand that vitamin D is important to maintaining a healthy gut. Although those facts were known separately, this is the first study that links them in humans. The results were important as there was a strong effect visible within the span of a week.”
Just one week!!!
One of the authors on the paper, Bruce Vallance, went on to say this…
“The results of this study have implications for people who are undergoing UVB phototherapy and identifies a novel skin-gut axis that may contribute to the protective role of UVB light exposure in inflammatory diseases like MS and IBD.”
All Foods Emit Biophotons
In 1976, Popp and his research partner Bernard Ruth used photomultipliers to show the photons, or light, waves given off by cucumber seedlings. To explore the potential link to photosynthesis, their next test involved growing seedling plants in the dark, this time with potatoes. To their surprise, the photomultiplier detected an even higher intensity of light. Additionally, the photons within the examined living systems displayed a coherence surpassing anything they had previously observed.
Popp began thinking about light and Nature. Light was present in plants and was used during photosynthesis. He concluded that when we eat plant foods, we must take up the photons and store them.
When we consume plants, they are metabolized into carbon dioxide (CO2) and water, plus the light stored from the sun and photosynthesis (electrons). While we know the CO2 is released via the lungs and the water is used in the body as a semiconductor surface, the light, existing as an electromagnetic wave, must be stored somewhere.
The body takes in these photons and their energy disperses them. These photons can encompass the entire spectrum of electromagnetic frequencies, from the lowest to the highest. This energy serves as the driving force for all the molecules in our body, not ATP. Prior to any chemical reaction, at least one electron must be activated by a photon with a specific wavelength and sufficient energy.
Even Albert Lehninger, the famous biochemist, said that some reactions in the living cell happen quite a lot faster than what corresponds to 37 degree C temperature. The explanation seems to be that the body purposely directs chemical reactions by means of electromagnetic vibrations (biophotons).
Giving Off Light
The gut is designed to process food- which means it must be able to work with light. As we have seen, damaged human cells also emit more light than healthy cells. One study found that photon emission on the fingertips of subjects would be because of cigarette smoking. Biophoton imaging on human bodies has the potential to offer the method of determining the oxidative damage of skin.
As you can see here: the untreated injured leaves (left) show a higher amount of biophotonic emissions than the treated leaves (right).
This was also seen on mouse models. Mice transplanted with cancer had a greater biophoton emission than healthy models. In fact, they found a correlation with biophoton intensity and growth rate observed, representing the higher metabolic activity of cancer cells and the state of oxidative stress in cancer cells.
In his research, Popp demonstrated, in detail, that the light emissions from healthy individuals exhibit a distinct biological rhythm corresponding to day-and-night cycles, as well as weekly and monthly patterns. These oscillating emissions are intricately linked to the biophotons present in the foods we call plants.
To take this concept a step further, other researchers found that the light humans give off actually changes throughout the day and can be synced up with the Earth’s natural rhymes (Schumann Resonance), and the sun & moon cycles.
As you can see from the graphs above, by the third day, cortisol levels show a negative correlation when rhythmic patterns emerge. Recognizing the patterns, Popp was able to analyze previous data, and found that the light emissions adhered to specific time intervals, aligning with biological rhythms at intervals of 7, 14, 32, 80, and 270 days. Furthermore, intriguing similarities were observed in relation to daytime, nighttime, week, and month, suggesting that the body might be synchronizing with both its own internal biorhythms and those of the world.
He ultimately found that healthy cells exhibit a coherence with the Earth’s rhythms, while cancerous cells and “autoimmune” cells do not.
In every case he tested, Popp found that people who had lost their natural periodic rhythms and coherence had cancer. They had lost their connection with Nature, and their light was going out.
Interestingly, he also found that if there was too much coherence (like that of a laser), it could inhibit a cell’s ability to do its job. This was what was found in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Seemingly, too much harmony prevents flexibility and individuality. It is as if there are too many soldiers marching uniformly across a bridge, leading to its collapse.
Therefore, Popp hypothesized that illness results from incoherence, in the form of either too little or too much light. “Perfect coherence is an optimum state just between chaos and order.”
Light Communications
In the 1970s, a Russian scientist, V.P. Kaznacheyev, found that dying cells can transfer death to healthy cells through a quartz window, but not a Modern glass one. This is important because quartz allows for the transmission of UV and IR light, but modern glass does not.
In fact, when cells are born or when cells die, they are known to emit an ultra-weak photonic frequency that can pattern nearby cells to either illness or health.
What this ultimately means is that cells talk to each other using low intensity light biophotons.
Think about your own healing process. When you get a cut or scratch on your skin, the injured cells somehow signal the surrounding healthy cells to begin reproducing copies of themselves to fill in and heal the open wound. When the skin is finally healed, a signal is sent to the cells to halt the healing response because it is no longer needed.
Popp felt that if biophoton emission was the main communication medium, there must have been a central orchestrator pulling the strings. He felt that these weak light emissions could be just that. And it is OK if they were of low intensity because they were taking place on the small, intracellular, quantum level- like that of semiconductors.
Consider that semiconductors work on quantum mechanics. They can also work in a linear or nonlinear optic fashion. In nonlinear optics, the response of a material to light is not proportional to the intensity of the incident light, as is the case in linear optics. In short, you need a very small input to create a strong response in the body- much smaller than classical physics would indicate.
This is precisely what Robert Becker found in his work. These communications can happen via nonlinear optics. For example, nonlinear effects with light are those where applying twice the optical input intensities does not simply result in twice the output intensities.
Gut-Light Connections
Most of the microbes in our body are found in the colon. We now know that changes in the microbiome may be responsible for a whole host of modern dis-ease, including diabetes, digestive disorders, skin diseases, gum disease, autoimmune challenges, and even obesity.
There are studies that show that alterations in the microbiome affect fertility and longevity in humans.
There is evidence that gut bacteria play a role in obesity and diabetes, can control emotions and cravings, and those who live in longevity zones have different microbiomes than those who live lower life expectancy zones. When you consume unhealthy food – you crave unhealthy food. Eat organic food – you crave healthy food.
We know there are differences in the microbiome of children with autism, and these children have more trouble breaking down peptides like gluten or casein. Casomorphins and gliadomorphins (peptides from microbial digestion of cow’s milk and gluten, respectively) both have an opioid effect. In fact, one of the strongest opiates, β-casomorphin, is found on American cheese fermented by a mutant of Lactobacillus helveticus.
In other words, if we don’t have a good grasp on our internal ecosystem, we are ignoring a MAJOR part of our health story. These bacteria GREATLY influence how we live, heal, and age.
Who Needs Gene Therapy When You Can Transfer Microbes?!
And while it may sound gross to you…fecal transplants are becoming a more common way to repopulate altered microbiomes, and the effects can be far-reaching.
Clostridium difficile is a strain of bacteria that can survive antibiotic treatments, and then take over when many other species are wiped out from the treatment. It is known as opportunistic bacteria because it can thrive when the gut is ravaged, and not held in check by those beneficial species. Those “infected” following a round of antibiotics can suffer from years of loose, bloody diarrhea. This can take a toll on one’s body and mind.
To combat this issue, doctors have had to get creative when it comes to treatments. While it is only in its beginning stages, some doctors have begun to perform what are known as “gut transplants,” or more accurately, fecal transplants. Healthy donors can give some of their healthy gut flora, and have it transplanted to those with Clostridium overgrowths. A healthy feces sample is all doctors need.
It is actually a fairly simple procedure and has been used by vets for decades with great results for a variety of species. When it comes to humans, though, this is a new procedure. Research using this method to treat Clostridium have shown a 90% success rate.
Despite this, it is not commonly used, and is saved for those who have gone through many other treatments with no success. The fear is that doctors are scared to transplant “harmful” bacteria along with the many beneficial ones, even if the success rate is incredibly high. Some places have begun to try and recreate artificial stools containing only beneficial species of bacteria. This may lead to a more widespread use of the treatment.
Probiotic transplants could be the most intriguing and potentially game-changing procedure today. They have already been used to help patients who suffer from diabetes. Some scientists have begun looking at whether they can be helpful in preventing full-blown type I diabetes as well.
Instead of injecting individual species, entire gut microbiomes are moved into a new gut. The microbiome plays an integral role in immune system maintenance and metabolism regulation. More than half the gut bacteria are not identified or studied adequately, so it is not reasonable to think just a couple beneficial species make all the difference. Everyday habits, every meal we eat, and the environment we are a part of can play a role in how the microbiome can either help or hurt us overall.
GMOs & Unnatural Foods
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and processed foods exhibit lower biophoton emissions compared to naturally occurring foods. Many people don’t seem to know this or overlook it.
The plants and food of Nature are beings of light, and so are we. We must be treating our neighbors in the gut with the same respect.
Industrially manufactured processed foods play a role in shaping the gut microbiome by modifying the light signals emanating from the bacteria within the microbiome. This alteration in light emissions simplifies the gut flora and in size and species diversity.
Food serves as a conduit for carrying information and energy to the gut microbiome and the brain via the vagus nerve.
As an analogy, consider this: your nerves are rivers, flowing into the lake we call the brain, carrying both water and light. As these “rivers” reach the brain, it interprets the quantum light message from the gut. This energy and information play a pivotal role in shaping the diversity of the gut microbiome, using quantum light signals through quorum frequency sensing.
Remember, at sea level, only 39% of the sunlight that reaches us is visible light, with 6-7% being UV, and the rest is infrared.
Why does this matter? Even when the sun is at its peak, the Earth’s atmosphere still blocks about ¾ of the sun’s UV radiation. About 95% of what breaks through is in the UVA range (longer wavelengths tend to penetrate surfaces more easily). The rest is in the UVB range. How much UVB penetrates is going to depend on the cloud cover and other atmospheric conditions in your area. In other words, the amount of UVB light animals, plants, and humans receive can vary drastically from day to day.
Microbes Releasing Light
Popp and his student Bernard Ruth discovered that all living systems acquire energy from the sun and consume it through plants (via photosynthesis). These photons are stored in nucleic acids like DNA.
Interestingly enough, Popp also found that prokaryotes release A LOT more light than eukaryotes. That’s right: the bacteria in your gut are capable of releasing more light than our own cells. There’s a light show going on in your gut, and you don’t even know about it! Unfortunately, he did not explore whether mitochondrial DNA holds more light than eukaryotic nuclear DNA. But there may be a few reasons to think it does.
Consider consuming vegetables. When you eat vegetables, you break them down into electrons, CO2, and water. But there is other information here as well.
Alongside these electrons is seasonal information embedded in the light used to cultivate these plants. Remember, photosynthesis and cellular respiration are intimately connected. Mitochondria possess a mechanism like the reaction centers in plants (chloroplasts) for harvesting light.
Electrons readily absorb energy from the sun’s photons, allowing the storage of light photons while allowing the “harvested electrons” to proceed to reduce oxygen (to water).
Popp chose to work with UV light because he was influenced by the experiments of Russian biologist Alexander Gurwitsch. In 1923, Gurwitsch discovered that roots of onions (rich in sulfur) could stimulate neighboring plant roots when both were in quartz (a piezoelectric crystal) glass pots, but not in silicon (non-piezoelectric) glass pots.
The difference being that silicon filtered UV wavelengths of light, whereas quartz did not. Gurwitsch proposed the theory that onion roots could communicate with each other through ultraviolet light.
Effectively mitochondria can do the same with these electrons for us.
In his experiments, Popp demonstrated that these “ultraweak” light emissions were effective in coordinating the body’s repair processes. The key concept here is that there is an ability to convert light into an electric signal in the brain, which can then be transformed into an electrochemical signal and, subsequently, back into light or another form of signal.
Following a similar line of thought as Popp, Dr. Veljko Veljkovic thinks we connect frequencies of light through biologic fiberoptic cables to facilitate proper signaling.
Now take this into account. During the times of year when food is abundant, the circadian rhythms of animals synchronize strongly with the light-dark cycle. Conversely, when food is scarce, we can adapt to a disconnection from typical light cycles.
This adaptability is why fasting can be beneficial in addressing circadian mismatches. You may go longer periods without food when getting further from the equator at certain times of the year. We all know this intuitively, but modern shipping and grocery stores make us forget this obvious fact of life.
On the other hand, intermittent fasting becomes more effortless and natural when living under the sun and grounding to the Earth. You may notice you need to eat less food when you vacation to a more tropical location.
In this way, food is a solar signal for our gut enterocytes.
Microbes Making Decisions For You
With a complex ecosystem like this, it shouldn’t surprise you that it can influence surrounding environments. Take this excerpt from the University of Tennessee:
“It’s not thinking in the way humans, dogs or even birds think, but new findings from researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, show that bacteria are more capable of complex decision-making than previously known…We see now that bacteria are, in their way, big thinkers, and by knowing how they ‘feel’ about the environment around them, we can look at new and different ways to work with them.”
Understanding this may give you some ideas. Perhaps microbes form spores and cysts as a strategy to evade antibiotics. This breakthrough marks a significant milestone in researching how bacteria respond and adapt to environmental changes—a characteristic shared by almost all living organisms. The implications of this discovery could spark innovations across various fields, ranging from medicine to agriculture.
The Gut-Light Connection
Humans are really superorganisms composed of 10x more microbial cells than human cells. A health gut contains about 3.5 lbs (about 1.5kg) of 1,000 species of different bacteria. And this ecosystem is unique to you.
When we eat food, we ingest light and biophotonic frequencies.
One of Popp’s experiments included testing the photon coherency of free range eggs as opposed to those produced in a battery pen. The results showed that the free range eggs had far more coherent light emission than those produced indoors.
He then went on to examine different food types and found the foods considered the healthiest foods were found to have the lowest and most coherent intensity of light.
Microbes are a crucial determinant in how our body functions and heals/destroys itself.
Acknowledging that the majority of conscious and sentient beings in the ecosystem of our body coexist with us is essential. Our current approach to healthcare, marked by antibiotics and aggressive methods, fundamentally contradicts the laws of nature. We need to embrace our microbial neighbors, not eradicate them.
Nature operates on a communal basis, rejecting isolation. Monocrop farms, where various elements collaborate to create a balanced environment, never thrive. We can apply this same principle to the body, where plants, trees, microbes, insects, and fungi work together to establish a harmonious and beneficial environment for all. Wild native plants have more biophotons and soil microbes have been shown to be more complex than other microbes.
We see this in our guts as well. More microbial diversity = better health. The opposite is also true.
Sun energy stored in plants finds its way into our cells via primarily raw fruits and vegetables. These light particles are called ‘biophotons’, which are the smallest physical units of light.
What we know about biophotons so far is that they have physiological importance in cell-to-cell communication and repair mechanisms. It is thought that light energy may influence DNA during photosynthesis and is transmitted continuously by the cell. This also happens in our gut bacteria.
In other words, these little light packages play a role in telling the body which cells become red blood cells, skin cells, liver cells, etc. How cool is that?!
While there is still a lot of work to do, we know that the microbiome inside of us is a reflection of our internal environment, and communication is shared via the vagus nerve between it and the brain. The microbiome is always changing based on the light input it receives, and that can be from both food AND the environment.
What we do know is that the greater biophoton emissions in any food, the greater the ability to transfer those nutrients from the sun to the consumer (in this case humans and our microbes). In other words, the higher the biophotonic energy of the food, the more nutritious the food, and the more light energy you consume, literally.
When we consume foods in their raw, unprocessed states, the greater the chances that the stored sunlight finds its way into the body. The more sunlight that is stored in the foods we consume, the more vital and vibrantly healthy we become.
It should not surprise you that the foods richest in biophotons are raw fruits and vegetables.
So get outside and eat up!
Until next week!
Dr. Vincent Esposito
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