Light as a trigger and a probe of the internal dynamics of living organisms.

It has been reported that the colors perceived behind closed eyes provide an indication of the psychophysical state of a subject. We discuss this phenomenon in the light of recently developed approaches to living organisms, based on the interplay between matter organization, biochemistry and electrodynamics. "When there is no energy, there is no color, no shape, no life." Caravaggio (1571-1610).

Cancer growth and its inhibition in terms of coherence.

It is shown that a molecular origin for growth inhibition is rather unlikely because the cross-sectional area of inhibitory forces in a cell population cannot exceed more than about 10(-8) Dalton. A model of the time dependence of cell number N(t), where t is the time, is based on biophotons and explains without any contradiction to known experimental results growth regulation in terms of the factor a = 1/T, which stimulates the cell division rate dN/dt and the factor b = dT/dN(1/T(2)), which inhibits cell division. It accounts for the total cell division rate dN/dt = aN(t) - bN(2)(t). For adults, T is the coherence time of about 10(6) s, corresponding to the longest lifetime of cell organelles in men, while dT/dN = 10(-7) s corresponds to the resolution time of the cell population which is always the average time interval between two cell loss events. Our model follows a stringently holistic approach to describing a cell population as an entity, regulated by a fully coherent (biophoton) field.

Principles of complementary medicine in terms of a suggested scientific basis.

In order to create a scientific basis of complementary medicine it is certainly necessary to add a more non-local approach to the molecular substance of orthodox "life-sciences". It should be able to explain strange phenomena like healing by homeopathy or acupuncture. A possible frame concerns oscillatory electromagnetic interactions as regulatory and - in case of disease--deregulatory impulses of the organisms. These couplings are found, for instance, in biological rhythms, external rhythmical influences (sun exposure, atmospheric disturbances), and vibrations of the body over a huge range of frequencies. One basic example is biophotons and "delayed luminescence".

Biophotonics in the infrared spectral range reveal acupuncture meridian structure of the body.

This study shows, for the first time, evidence of the existence of the acupuncture meridian structure in the human body. After moxibustion (or similar light stimulation) of the body in the 3-5 microm range, "light channels" appear on the body, which appear to be identical to what are known as meridians in all textbooks of Traditional Chinese Medicine. These findings appear not only to confirm the existence of acupuncture meridians, but they also open a new window on understanding the energy transfer dynamics of the human body. Furthermore, it is likely that living matter is not in the ground state, but permanently electronically excited.

Further analysis of delayed luminescence of plants.

The delayed luminescence curves of biological tissues, in particular the "hyperbolic" oscillations of the form exp(-iln (1 + lambda t)) with t as the time and lambda as a constant, were subjects of further experimental and theoretical investigations. It turned out that the oscillations are solutions of a Hamiltonian that keeps coherent states coherent. In agreement to the expectations the oscillations disappear as soon as the biological system looses its integrity or its collective structure. The photocount statistics (PCS) confirms these results. The illumination itself influences the biological state under consideration. The temperature dependence displays small deviations from the Arrhenius-law with a mean activation energy of about 0.5 eV in case of plants. The results may be useful for investigating supermolecular interactions as well as for assessing the quality or quality changes of biological tissues.

Properties of biophotons and their theoretical implications.

The word "biophotons" is used to denote a permanent spontaneous photon emission from all living systems. It displays a few up to some hundred photons/(s x cm2) within the spectral range from at least 260 to 800 nm. It is closely linked to delayed luminescence (DL) of biological tissues which describes the long term and ultra weak reemission of photons after exposure to light illumination. During relaxation DL turns continuously into the steady state biophoton emission, where both, DL and biophoton emission exhibit mode coupling over the entire spectrum and a Poissonian photo count distribution. DL is representing excited states of the biophoton field. The physical properties indicate that biophotons originate from fully coherent and sometimes even squeezed states. The physical analysis provides thermodynamic and quantum optical interpretation, in order to understand the biological impacts of biophotons. Biological phenomena like intracellular and intercellular communication, cell growth and differentiation, interactions among biological systems (like "Gestaltbildung" or swarming), and microbial infections can be understood in terms of biophotons. "Biophotonics", the corresponding field of applications, provide a new powerful tool for assessing the quality of food (like freshness and shelf life), microbial infections, environmental influences and for substantiating medical diagnosis and therapy.