You Have an Invisible Light That Vanishes When You Die, Science Confirms

A new study suggests that living creatures—including humans—emit an ultra-faint glow of visible light that disappears at the moment of death. It’s not an aura, not magic, and not a TikTok wellness trend. It’s photons, and science just caught them in the act.

Researchers from the University of Calgary and the National Research Council of Canada recently published findings in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters detailing their investigation into “ultraweak photon emissions” (UPE). These are faint flashes of visible light that living cells release—possibly as a byproduct of stress-related chemical reactions inside the body.

To test this, researchers placed four live mice one at a time into a pitch-black imaging chamber. Using high-sensitivity cameras, they recorded the low-level biophoton glow for one hour. Then the mice were euthanized—and their bodies imaged for another hour, with their temperature maintained at normal body heat to rule out thermal interference.

The results were striking. After death, the visible light emissions dropped off significantly. “The difference in the numbers of these photons was clear,” the researchers wrote. Put simply, when life stopped, the glow stopped with it.

What Exactly is the Light?

This phenomenon isn’t new—but the whole-body measurement is. Previous research has shown that individual tissues can emit photons due to oxidative stress—like when cells are damaged by heat, toxins, or pathogens. Molecules such as hydrogen peroxide can trigger chemical changes that cause fats or proteins to emit a weak photon.

But capturing this across an entire organism, and watching it fade as life ends, is a major step forward. The same experiment was run on leaves from thale cress and dwarf umbrella trees. When injured or exposed to chemicals, the plants’ stressed areas glowed more brightly than their undamaged sections, reinforcing the link between cellular stress and this faint emission.

“Our results show that the injury parts in all leaves were significantly brighter than the uninjured parts,” the researchers said.

While it’s tempting to lean into the metaphor of a life force flickering out, the implications are firmly scientific. Tracking this light could one day help doctors and researchers monitor tissue stress or damage non-invasively—from living organisms to agricultural samples.

This isn’t some mystical aura. It’s a reminder that the line between life and death isn’t always as invisible as we think. Sometimes, it fades one photon at a time.