All living things – from humans to mice and plants – emit a ghostly glow up until they die.
Mystics and holistic medicine practitioners have long claimed to see a mysterious aura around people.
But for what might be the first time, scientists say they have seen this glow, too.
This glow, a new study found, is too faint to be seen and goes off once creatures die.
Researchers say that the faint glow is caused by cells producing photons, teeny-weeny particles of light.
The phenomenon is called ultraweak photon emission (UPE), the University of Calgary team said.
So, not quite a soul or a spirit.
The study, released last month, saw scientists find evidence in two species of mice and plants that ‘biophotons’ flow out from them.
Lead author Dr Daniel Oblak and his team placed the mice in dark chambers and imaged them using high-sensitivity cameras.
The batch of images showed photos fluttering out from the bodies of the mice.
After the mice were euthanised – but kept warm to rule out temperature effects – their bodies stopped emitting photons.
The study said: ‘While the live mice emit robust UPE, likely indicative of ongoing biological processes and cellular activity, the dead mice’s UPE emission is nearly extinguished.’
The same was seen in plant leaves, such as thale cress flowers and umbrella trees, even when they were cut.
Bizarrely, injured leaves shone brighter than healthy ones, with the paper authors suggesting that stress may be a factor in photon production.
The number of biophotons shot up, the study said, when the plants were given a local anaesthetic.
Dr Oblak told New Scientist: ‘This really shows that this is not just an imperfection or caused by other biological processes.
‘It’s really something that comes from all living things.’
Many organic things emit light, from creepy neon fish swimming in the ocean depths to bacterial colonies that call fish guts home.
UPE, however, is something that has proved hard to find evidence of. Living organisms need energy to survive, so fill up their tanks with food.
The mitochondria in their cells – tiny organelles that fuel the operation of the cells – burn the sugars in the food with oxygen.
During this reaction, which scientists call ‘oxidative metabolism’, molecules gain and lose energy, so they emit a few photons.
Dr Oblak says that his team’s study is the closest so far to capturing these faint photos in action.
He added: ‘The fact that ultraweak photon emission is a real thing is undeniable at this point.’
Researchers have documented patients experiencing life-like hallucinations after clinical death, when the heart stops pumping but the brain flickers with electrical activity.
One scientist said in February that this burst in brain activity involves neurons firing off to make gamma waves, akin to a ‘soul leaving a body’.
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