If you think hard about a bright light whilst sitting in a dark room, will your head emit photons? Recent research from B.T. Dotta, K.S. Saroka and M.A. Persinger at Laurentian University, Ontario, Canada, suggests the answer maybe yes. The team has, for the first time, found that “increased photon emission from the head while imagining light in the dark is correlated with changes in electroencephalographic power.”
Experimental subjects sat blindfolded in a darkened room, whilst they tried to imagine either a bright light, or a control scenario called ‘casual thinking’. An extremely sensitive photomultiplier was positioned so that it could register any photons which might be emitted from the subjects’ brains. The tests :
“…demonstrated significant increases in ultraweak photon emissions (UPEs) or biophotons equivalent to about 5 × 10−11 W/m2 from the right sides of volunteer’s heads when they imagined light in a very dark environment compared to when they did not.”
The results, say the team, lend support for professor István Bókkon’s biophoton hypothesis (or hypotheses). The paper : ‘Increased photon emission from the head while imagining light in the dark is correlated with changes in electroencephalographic power: Support for Bókkon’s biophoton hypothesis’ is published in Neuroscience Letters, Volume 513, Issue 2, 4 April 2012, Pages 151–154. It can also be read in full here.
Note: Unfortunately, Improbable has as yet not been able to track down any weak brain photon photographs.
BONUS: Watch one of the paper’s authors, professor Persinger, deliver a talk entitled ‘No More Secrets’. The concept of Light Emitting Brains features at around 25:09