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Biophotons - The Light in Our Cells
Marco Bischof
522 pp., more than 160 illustrations, 5 color plates, extensive bibliography and index.
German publisher: Zweitausendeins, Frankfurt.
http://www.zweitausendeins.de/
Publication date: March 1995
Actual edition (May 1998): 9th printing
Total number of copies sold in German-language market: 27'000
ISBN 3-86150-095-7
World rights: Zweitausendeins.
"This book is only available in German language and not yet published in English"
Short description
Marco Bischof's widely acclaimed book has already sold some 30'000 German-language copies (9th printing) since
its publication in March 1995, and the success is continuing. It is the first comprehensive book on the world market
for the general and scientific public on one of the hottest fields of frontier science which is about to lead to
major conceptual breakthroughs and many useful applications in biophysics, biomedical science, biology, biotechnology,
environmental science and food technology. Thousands of medical doctors, scientists, and interested laypersons
in Germany, Switzerland and Austria who from the many newspaper and magazine articles and from several TV features
in the last couple of years were aware of this development of potential breakthroughs in a number of scientific
disciplines and wanted to obtain more precise and broadly accessible information have been waiting for this book
that will remain the definitive publication on the topic for many years to come. Russian and Chinese translations
are in preparation. The book has been awarded the 1995 Book Price by the Scientific and Medical Network (U.K.)
and the Swiss Award 1997 by the Swiss Parapsychological Foundation.
What are biophotons ?
Biophotons, or ultraweak photon emissions of biological systems, are weak electromagnetic waves in the optical
range of the spectrum - in other words: light. All living cells of plants, animals and human beings emit biophotons
which cannot be seen by the naked eye but can be measured by special equipment developed by German researchers.
This light emission is an expression of the functional state of the living organism and its measurement therefore
can be used to assess this state. Cancer cells and healthy cells of the same type, for instance, can be discriminated
by typical differences in biophoton emission. After an initial decade and a half of basic research on this discovery,
biophysicists of various European and Asian countries are now exploring the many interesting applications which
range across such diverse fields as cancer research, non-invasive early medical diagnosis, food and water quality
testing, chemical and electromagnetic contamination testing, cell communication, and various applications in biotechnology.
According to the biophoton theory developed on the base of these discoveries the biophoton light is stored in the
cells of the organism - more precisely, in the DNA molecules of their nuclei - and a dynamic web of light constantly
released and absorbed by the DNA may connect cell organelles, cells, tissues, and organs within the body and serve
as the organism's main communication network and as the principal regulating instance for all life processes. The
processes of morphogenesis, growth, differentiation and regeneration are also explained by the structuring and
regulating activity of the coherent biophoton field. The holographic biophoton field of the brain and the nervous
system, and maybe even that of the whole organism, may also be basis of memory and other phenomena of consciousness,
as postulated by neurophysiologist Karl Pribram an others. The consciousness-like coherence properties of the biophoton
field are closely related to its base in the properties of the physical vacuum and indicate its possible role as
an interface to the non-physical realms of mind, psyche and consciousness.
The discovery of biophoton emission also lends scientific support to some unconventional methods of healing based
on concepts of homeostasis (self-regulation of the organism), such as various somatic therapies, homeopathy and
acupuncture. The "ch'i" energy flowing in our bodies' energy channels (meridians) which according to
Traditional Chinese Medicine regulates our body functions may be related to node lines of the organism's biophoton
field. The "prana" of Indian Yoga physiology may be a similar regulating energy force that has a basis
in weak, coherent electromagnetic biofields.
Background
First discovered in 1923 by Russian medical scientist Professor Alexander G.Gurvich (who named them "mitogenetic
rays") and in the 1930s widely researched in Europe and the USA, biophotons have been rediscovered and backed
since the 1970s by ample experimental and theoretical evidence by European scientists. In 1974 German biophysicist
Fritz-Albert Popp has proved their existence, their origin from the DNA and later their coherence (laser-like nature),
and has developed biophoton theory to explain their possible biological role and the ways in which they may control
biochemical processes, growth, differentiation etc. Popp's biophoton theory leads to many startling insights into
the life processes and may well provide one of the major elements of a future theory of life and holistic medical
practice based on such an approach. The importance of the discovery has been confirmed by eminent scientists such
as Herbert Froehlich and Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine. Since 1992, the International Institute of Biophysics,
a network of research laboratories in more than 10 countries, based in Germany, is coordinating research in this
field which promises rapid development in the next decade.
Aims of the book
To date the few books about biophotons have been highly technical and written mainly in German. Not even among
these, there was any single book integrating all that is known today about this fascinating field of science which
is likely to become soon a much discussed topic also in the English-speaking world. The author, who in 1994-95
has served as Managing Director of the International Institute of Biophysics at Neuss (Germany) and still is a
member of the Board of Directors of this institute, has closely followed biophoton research since 1977 and so was
predestined to write the first comprehensive account of the subject ever made. His aim was to reach a wider public
among scientists, medical doctors and the scientifically aware. The book which embeds the more technical parts
in a popular treatment of the historical antecedents of the concept of "energy bodies", "life energies"
and biolectricity, and to the ages-old scientific controversy between vitalistic and mechanistic trends in biology
and medicine, also appeals to a general readership interested in new developments in the biological and physical
sciences and in medicine and in their interplay with consciousness research and new age ideas.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Structure of the Book
Acknowledgements
1. Elements of a physics of the living
What are photons ? / What are biophotons ? / What is the origin of biophoton emission ? / The coherence of biophotons
/ Regulation by the biophoton field / The network of light metabolism / The present state of the discussion / Biophoton
theory and alternative medicine / Biophoton theory as a basis for a scientific theory of life appropriate to nature
/ The new concept of the cell / The big network / From the molecular to the field perspective / Significance of
the new concept / Will biology turn out to be more fundamental than physics ? / Possibilities of misuse / Which
philosophy will prevail ?
PART I. Prehistory
2. The Aura
The concept of nonmaterial "energy bodies" / Subtle bodies of light / "Mana" and "inner
fire" / Indian, Tibetan and Chinese concepts / Visionary concept of the "essential light" of man
/ Paracelsus' "archaeus"
3.Electrobiology and vitalism
Bioelectricity / The vitalistic tradition / Romantic medicine: illness as a developmental crisis / Claude Bernard's
homeostasis: self-regulation of the organism
4. Scientific Medicine
At the origin of modern electrophysiology: the injury current / The Berlin school of physiology: the "overcoming"
of vitalism / The "Bernstein hypothesis" of the membrane potential: paradigm of the new "scientific
medicine" / The link between electricity and life energy is severed / "Scientific medicine" conquers
the US and the world / Ehrlich's "receptor theory"
5. From Mesmer to Reich
Mesmer's "animal magnetism" / Baron Reichenbach's "odic force" / Wilhelm Reich's "orgone"
6. The inconquerable aura
Kilner's aura screens / Albert Hofmann: the aura is subjective / A contemporary description of the aura / The biophysical
basis of the aura
7. Electromagnetic man
Blondlot's "N-rays" / Hofmann finds "head and hand rays" / An early Swiss pioneer of electrobiology
/ The beginnings of modern electrobiology: Burr's "electrodynamic field" / Electromagnetic field structure
at the beginning of embryonic development / Electrical determination of ovulation / The connection between electrodynamic
field and the psyche / Electrical indications of illness / Robert O.Becker rehabilitates Matteucci's injury current
/ The body's own electrical regeneration system / Successful electrical stimulation of bone repair / The discovery
of the "perineural DC system" / Brain and nervous system: a combination of analog and digital information
coding ?
PART II: Beginnings
8. Alexander Gurvich and mitogenetic radiation
The onion root experiment of 1922 / Cells emit light at birth and at death / Cellular radiation and cancer / The
theory of the biological field / The "unequilibrated molecular complexes" / Gurvich as a pioneer of modern
biophysical concepts / The fate of mitogenetic research / The two schools of biophoton research / The reasons for
the ending of Western mitogenetic research before World War II / After World War II
9. Fritz-Albert Popp: How a physicist came to the light
The riddle of cancer genesis / Light in the organism ? / The Kaznacheev experiment / The foundations for biophoton
theory are laid
10. ....and there was light !
The first rigorous proof for the existence of the cell emission / Enormous enhancement of chemical reactivity
/ Experimental proof for Prigogine's theory
11. A stony way to knowledge
The "imperfection theory" / Lossless circulation of light in the cell / Is plant and animal tissue transparent
for light ? / A challenge to laboratory physics / Recognition comes
12. From chaos to order : Prigogine's "dissipative structures" and Froehlich's "Bose-condensate"
The biochemical world picture / Dissipative structures / Coherent electromagnetic interactions
13. The bio-informatics of electromagnetic interactions
Our radiation environment / Ionizing radiation / Non-ionizing radiation / UV radiation / UV light and the immune
system / The visible light / The role of the pineal / Antagonistic effects of colored light / How light enters
into the body / Fundamental light sensitivity / High-frequency radiation / Electromagnetic pollution / Two opposite
views on biological communication / ULF, ELF and VLF (low frequency) radiation / Weather radiation / The correspondence
between weather radiation and brainwaves / On the search for a new explanation of radiation effects
14. A scientific revolution
Meaningful event or blind mechanism ? / The Berlin and the Goettingen schools of thought / An antipode of molecular
biology: Georges Lakhovsky / A pioneer of the new thinking: Vladimir Vernadsky / Presman's revolutionary concept
/ New approaches come to prevail only very slowly / Non-equilibrium thermodynamics and the principle of least effort
/ The two currents in science: mechanists vs. vitalists / Quantitative power thinking versus the wisdom of non-violence
/ The intelligence of nature
PART III . Fundamentals
15. The ecology and the physiology of light
The radiation of the sun and the self-regulation of "Gaia". Photosynthesis / Skin and eyes as "light
valves" / The role of melanin in the transduction of light
16. Organisms as light stores
Coherent sunlight / The cavity model / Hyperbolic decay / Organisms are biological lasers
17. DNA: Light storage in spiral molecules
Replication / Repair / Transcription / Translation / DNA hyperstructures / The ethidium bromide experiment / DNA
the most important source of biophoton emission / The exciplex model of DNA / DNA as lasering matter / The origin
of Schroedinger's "order suction" (?) : Bose-condensation in DNA / Photon-phonon-interaction / DNA as
a pulsating "light pump" / A hierarchy of light-active molecule systems / Molecular and cellular pulsations
/ Melanins as collaborators of DNA ? / DNA predestined to be the central control of the biophoton field / The antenna
geometry of DNA
18. Coherent states: Organisms at the threshold between Yin and Yang
The bioplasma concept / The biological laser field: dynamic stability at the laser threshold / The peculiarity
of biological coherence / The Dicke theory and "Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics" / Actual and potential
information / Biological consequences
19. The genesis and development of life in the biophoton field
Matter consists of vibrations / Particles and fields originate from the "void" / Quantum physics treats
reality according to acustical laws / Jenny's "cymatics" as a model of morphogenesis / The basic mechanism
of morphogenesis: Interference / The importance of frequency / Light as the organizing principle of matter / Material
structures as antennae for radiation / Evolution in the radiation field / The communication experiments / The residual
light amplifier makes biophotons visible for the first time / When blood cells communicate / Evolution as the expansion
of coherent states
20. The biophoton field as morphogenetic field: The development of the embryo
Field properties of organisms / The field description of the cleaving process shows harmonical laws / Holographic
properties / Further stages of embryonic development: The dialectics of internal and surface cellular fields /
The transition from cleavage to gastrulation: From point symmetry to axial symmetry / The genesis of partial fields
/ The phase of the genesis of germinal layers: a sensitive stage
21. The three germinal layers
Germinal layers as energy systems / Dissimilar degree of coherence of the three systems
22. The regulation of differentiation and growth by the biophoton field
Properties of organisms that are not determined by genetic activity / junk genes ? / The "c value paradoxon"
/ Non-genetic role of DNA ? / The exciplex model of DNA solves open problems in biology / The complementarity of
growth and differentiation / The electromagnetic model of cell differentiation and growth confirmed experimentally
23. Biochemical regulation
Coordinated and ordered biochemical activity through the biophoton field / The biochemistry of the cell in a new
light / The role of photon frequencies and of the particle geometry / Dynamical structuring of the regulating field
/ Are biological rhythms controlled by the biophoton field ? / Homeostasis through light-controlled entropy gradients
/ The entire metabolic work accomplished by biophotons ?
24. Harmonical structures
Mitotic spindle ordered by cavity waves ? / Microtubuli as optical waveguides ? / Cell skeleton built up by light
? / The role of water / Order and water metabolism in the cell are linked / Vibrating musculature / A complex resonance
structure makes the organism react very sensitively / States of tension / Biophotons in the nervous system / Holographic
biophoton fields in the brain / Altered states of consciousness / A coupling between the nervous system and other
oscillators in the organism ? / Our odorous aura
PART IV. Applications
25. Illness and health
Health as a coherent state / Illness as a developmental crisis / Stages of illness / Immunological resistance and
effectiveness of substances explainable through biophoton field
26. Regulation forms and types of illness
Polar ordering of regulation systems / Reactive types and the proneness towards certain illnesses / Yin and Yang
illnesses / Pischinger's "Basic regulatory system" as a basis for all regulations
27. Cancer: Loss of coherence and of the ability to store light
Cancer tissue has different emission / The tumor is the symptom, not the illness / A fast and cheap tumor test
28. Homeopathic principles as a "guiding line" for modern medicine
Holistic regulation through vibrations / High potencies improve the coherence of the organism and are effective
on the causal level / Homeopathic effects not explainable biochemically / Electromagnetic fields can substiute
substances / The memory of water / Coherence therapy
29. Urine, blood, and breath tests; smoking test
The luminescence of urine indicates illnesses / Has blood radiation a diagnostic value ? / Blood and urine of smokers
show stronger emission / Luminescent breath
30. A test for determining immunological resistance
Radiant phagocytes / A Tibetan drug under test / Biophoton measurements on the flu remedy Echinacine
31. Food quality analysis
In fact we eat sunlight / A concentration of the sunlight towards DNA / ATP as a light carrier / Not the caloric
but the information content determines the quality of foodstuffs / The light storage capacity of the "living
macromolecules" / Fats and sunlight / A test system for Popp's hypothesis / Free range eggs clearly distinguishable
from battery eggs / Is it possible to discriminate biological from conventional foodstuffs ? / Different production
and fertilization methods as well as contamination by pesticides and heavy metals engender different biophoton
emissions / Bacterial contamination in beer can be detected at an early stage / Biophoton method is superior to
biochemical analysis in some essential aspects / The result in the controversy about biological products / Detection
of oxidative degradation of organic substances
32. Agriculture
Improvement of quality and yield through "resonance stimulation" by laser light / Bad quality and low
resistance of glass-house products due to lack of UV light / Electromagnetic stimulation of growth (electroculture)
/ Acoustic stimulation of plant growth
33. Water research and "biological activity"
Water - an enigmatic substance / Water structures - facts and speculations / The memory of water / Are biological
experiments and biophoton measurements more adequate than other methods of investigation ? / Is the structural
aspect of water overemphasized ? / Different types of water can be differentiated / The discrimination of natural
and synthetic substances based on their "biological activity"
34. Environmental pollution
Gaseous pollutants / Biophoton emission as a measure of the Relative Biological Effectiveness (RBE) of ionizing
radiation / Synergetic mechanisms of damage
35. Dying forests
Water lentils as bio-indicators / Nuclear plants and dying forests: is there a connection ? / Electrochemical smog
and dying forests
36. Methods of bioelectronic diagnosis
1. The Bioelectronic Test according to Vincent / Bioelectronic measurements of body fluids to assess Claude Bernard's
"terrain" / Cancer prognosis possible ?
2. Electroacupuncture / Electroacupuncture according to Voll (EAV) / Electroacupuncture according to Croon ("Electroneural
diagnostics") / The "Ryodoraku method" of Nakatani / The AMI method of Motoyama
3. The bases of acupuncture / A possible participation of meridians in the formation of embryonic organs / Meridians
may be not material channels but node lines of the biophoton field / Acupuncture points electrically distinguished
/ A new method shows if someone is healthy or ill / The stimulation of acupuncture points / Biophoton research
furnishes bases for electrodiagnostics
4. Kirlian photography / Between bioelectrical measurement and biophoton measurement / Distribution of electrical
charge on the skin is fundamental / Diagnostic evaluation still in its beginnings / New technical developments
/ Use for quality analysis of foodstuffs and liquids
5. Whole body biophoton diagnostics / The biophysical basis of the aura / The works of Gulyaev and Godik / Thermoregulation
diagnostics / Biophoton measurements on humans / "Hand radiation" and healers / The whole-body biophoton
diagnostics project
37. Methods of bioelectronic therapy
1. MORA and radionics
2. Electrotherapy / An old tradition / Electrotherapy in the 19th century / High-frequency AC therapy / ELF therapy
3. Chromotherapy (Therapy with colored light) / Ghadiali's chromotherapy / Beginnings of modern light therapy /
The actual situation of chromotherapy
4. Laser therapy / Soft-laser applications with weak light / The work of Inyushin / Laser stimulation of tissue
regeneration / Laser stimulation of acupuncture points / The mechanism of soft laser therapy / Resonance stimulation
of the biophoton field
PART V. Outlook
38. The biophoton field - mediator between body and soul ?
Biophotons - to be analysed in the framework of current science / Is there an even more fundamental level of the
organism "behind" the biophoton field ? / The rebirth of the "ether" / The zero-point energy
of the vacuum / Bearden's "scalar fields" / Wheeler's "quantum foam" / Bohm's "implicate
order" / Burkhard Heim's six-dimensional world model / Photons as mediators between matter and spirit ? /
The consciousness-like aspects of matter / Coherence as a bridge to the realm of consciousness / Biophoton theory
and the vacuum field / Organisms may control their own space structure and flow of time: Dubrov's theory of "biogravitation"
/ Pulsation between space and "counter-space": biological space and the ether in the anthroposophical
doctrine / The polarity between levity and gravity / The pulse of life
Appendix. Concerning the state of the evidence in biophoton theory
Annotations/references
Bibliography
Glossary
Index
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