Sunlight

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TROXLER PHENOMENON, SUN COLUMNS AND PARHELIC CIRCLE

The exhibition of every hue of the rainbow and the apparent variation in size and distance of the sun, can be explained by the so called Sun Dogs, also called mock suns or false suns. The spinning of the sun and its pulsations might be explained by the Troxler phenomenon.
When the gaze is fixed intently on an object for a long time, peripheral images that tend to disappear reappear immediately when the eyes are moved. This effect is called the Troxler phenomenon. To study it reproducibly it is necessary to use an optical device that ensures that the image of any object upon which the gaze is fixed will remain on the same part of the retina however the eyes move. Two investigators found, when they did this, that the stabilized retinal image tended to fade within a few seconds. It may be assumed that in normal vision the normal involuntary movements--the microsaccades and drifts mentioned earlier--keep the retinal image in sufficient movement to prevent the fading, which is essentially an example of sensory adaptation, the tendency for any receptive system to cease responding to a maintained stimulus.

Sun pillars are vertical columns of light that appear above or below the sun, or both, when the sun is near the horizon. They are caused by reflection of sunlight from the near horizontal surfaces of ice crystals and are similar to the glitter path of sunlight reflected on water. Light pillars are also associated with the moon.
The parhelic circle is a reflection from the vertical surfaces of horizontally oriented flat plate or columnar crystals when very small ice crystals, diamond dust , fall through the air. The crystals reflect the light in all directions of the azimuth but always downward at the same elevation as the sun. Thus if the sun’s elevation is 25° an observer would see the parhelic circle 360° around the horizon by looking up 25°, but usually only part of the faint white circle is seen. The parhelic circle and a sun pillar may form a cross in the sky, centered on the sun. This was the main reason why the ancients associated the cross symbol to the sun.

MASTERS OF SUN GAZING

Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.) was the greatest Greek philosopher according to the Oracle of Delphi.
In Plato's Phædrus, Socrates is made to say that "our greatest blessings come to us by way of madness." Then Socrates said: "For prophecy is a madness, and the prophetess at Delphi and the priestesses at Dodona when out of their senses have conferred great benefits on Hellas, both in public and private life, but when in their senses few or none." (Phaedrus, 243)
Aristophanes, who did not understand and appreciate Socrates’ philosophy, wrote a play entitled “The Clouds” in which Socrates, after being asked "what are you doing up there?", is saying: "I am traversing the air and contemplating the sun." When asked what why he floats in the air, he replies, "I have to suspend my brain and mingle the subtle essence of my mind with this air, which is of the like nature, in order clearly to penetrate the things of heaven. I should have discovered nothing, had I remained on the ground to consider from below the things that are above; for the earth by its force attracts the sap of the mind to itself. It's just the same with the watercress." Let's mention that the Brahmans also used to levitate while sungazing. According to Philostratus , the Brahmans levitate at will in the air "not for the sake of vain glory, but to be nearer their Sun God," to whom they pray. (Flavius Philostratus, The Life Of Apollonius Of Tyana)
Socrates did also moon gazing. One cold winter night he was out amidst an olive grove. At daybreak when his wife Xanthippe, found him missing a search party was sent out. They found Socrates frozen like a Greek statue. When asked about this strange experience Socrates said: "I was gazing at the moon and suddenly my soul separated from the body and thus I did not know what to do, until you came and resuscitated me".
In Plato's Symposium, Socrates freezes in deep meditation en route to a drinking party (the 'symposium' of the title). The host Agathon, and the other guests, are left waiting; a slave is sent and returns reporting: "Socrates is here, but he's gone off to the neighbour's porch. He's standing there and won't come in even though I called him several times."
Agathon gives the order, "Go back and bring him in!" but Socrates' companion, Aristodemus, objects: "No, no, leave him alone. It's one of his habits: every now and then he just goes off like that and stands frozen, wherever he happens to be."
Alcibiades gives a further example of his deep meditative trances, being impervious to his surroundings and the heat of the Mediterranean summer Sun. He mentions also that he was praying at sunrise: "So much for that! But you should hear what else he did during that same campaign, 'The exploit our strong-hearted hero dared to do.' One day, at dawn, he started thinking about some problem or other; he just stood outside, trying to figure it out. He couldn't resolve it, but he wouldn't give up. He simply stood there, glued to the same spot. By midday, many soldiers had seen him, and, quite mystified, they told everyone that Socrates had been standing there all day, thinking about something. He was still there when evening came, and after dinner some Ionians moved their bedding outside, where it was cooler and more comfortable (all this took place in the summer), but mainly in order to watch if Socrates was going to stay out there all night. And so he did; he stood in the very same spot until dawn! He only left next morning, when the Sun came out, and he made his prayers to the new day."
Pythagoras, his teacher, instructed Socrates: "Offer sacrifice and worship with thy shoes off." According to Pythagoras: “Life is like a gathering at the Olympic festival, to which, having set forth from different lives and backgrounds, people flock for three motives. To compete for the glory of the crown, to buy and sell or as spectators. So in life, some enter the services of fame and others of money, but the best choice is that of these few who spend their time in the contemplation of nature, and as lovers of wisdom.”

Apollonius of Tyana was born around 4 BC at Tyana, in Cappadocia, and is last heard of in Ephesus, over 100 years later. He was presented in the memoirs of Damis of Nineveh, the so-called Scraps from the manger. The Scraps from the manger were given to Philostratus by the empress Julia Domna. The neo-Pythagorean sage who is described by Damis, worships the Sun. This element is almost absent from earlier Pythagorean works.
Philostratus frequently mentions Apollonius' prayers to the sun, something for which we do not find antecedents in the Pythagorean literature. “For he said that, whereas other men only make conjectures about the divinity and make guesses that contradict one another concerning it, -- in his own case he said that Apollo had come to him acknowledging that he was the God in person” (Flavius Philostratus, The Life Of Apollonius Of Tyana)
When Apollonius inquired Iarchas, the leader of Brahman sages, of whether the cosmos was composed of four elements, the latter replied that it was made not of four but of five, the fifth being the ether. There is, said the Indian sage, "the ether, which we must regard as the stuff of which gods are made, for just as mortal creatures inhale the air, so do immortal and divine natures inhale the ether." Damis saw too, the fire that they drew from the sun's rays, while they worshipped the solar orb.
Either sunrise or at noon, Apollonius would say the following prayer:
"O thou Sun, send me as far over the earth as is my pleasure and thine,
and may I make the acquaintance of good beings,
but never hear anything of bad ones, nor they of me."

Omram Michael Aivanhov: "Human beings are so unaccustomed to using their God-given psychic and spiritual faculties that they have no idea what to do when they see the sun rising. They soon start yawning with boredom. They are tired of watching that brilliant sphere in the sky. So they leave the sun and go to take care of more tangible, more important things!...
What is so extraordinary is that many people, finding themselves by chance in front of the rising sun, acknowledge that it is one of the most beautiful sights one can see, but that does not mean they are ready to make an effort to renew the experience. Yes, how many would feel impelled to get up early to greet the dawn, to welcome that light into their hearts and souls so that the whole day may be luminous and pure?"
"The ego is the ultimate black hole. It sucks in light but emits none. The Sun is the exact opposite of the ego. It ceaselessly bestows life upon the world. Its life is a true sacrifice. This secret message was clearly understood by the ancient rishis."
"You will understand how important it is for you to receive these particles of sunlight that vibrate with such intensity, so that your etheric body may become strong and radiant and safe from attack by disorder, illness or dicouragement of any kind."
"In your thought, with your imagination, try to draw some of these divine particles [of the Sun] into yourself. In this way, little by little, you will completely regenerate all the materials of your being. Thanks to the Sun you will think and act as a child of God."
"When we focus our attention on the sun, the centre of our universe, we draw closer to our own centre, our higher self, the sun within; we melt into it and begin to resemble it more and more."
"The world needs more and more human beings capable of dedicating themselves to this work with the sun, for only love and light are capable of transforming humanity."
"You go and watch the sunrise for your morning meditation, but you will not gain a great deal from this exercise if you do not prepare yourself; possibly the night before, but certainly from the moment you set off before dawn you must hold firmly in your head and in your heart the belief that you will not just assist but also participate in this incredible event taking place in the universe.[...] You will say that the sun will always rise, whether you are there to watch it or not. Yes, you are right, the sun does not need you to rise in the morning. It is important for you, however, because there is a connection between the events that occur in nature and those of your inner life."
"When you are watching the sun rise, wait, watchful and attentive, for the first ray and as soon as the first ray appears, concentrate on absorbing it, swallowing it. So instead of simply watching the sunrise, you are drinking it, you are eating it, and you imagine that this living light spreads through all the cells of your organs, purifying them, strengthening them and enlivening them. This exercise not only helps you concentrate, but you will feel your entire being quiver and illuminate because you are truly absorbing light"
"Light is the true beverage of immortality and you can catch this light in the morning at sunrise and use it to nourish your subtle bodies."
"If you are able to watch the sun with a free, clear mind you will feel that you are entering into contact with it, with its spirit,
and that you are absorbing its rays, like so many seeds of life."
"Prana is a great river flowing from the sun and, by meditation and breathing exercises, we can obtain all the elements we need from it."
"In a dream, the sun which is rising can announce, for example: the end of a grave disease (return of health), or blooming, the arrival of a prosperous situation, etc."
"The sunset (which is announcing night herald or darkness) represents: loss of consciousness, disease and death. It connects usto the destructive forces of decline and death. That is why it is not recommended to contemplate sunset."
"The nearer you get to the sun in spirit, soul, and thought, with your heart and will, the nearer you will be to God, for on the physical plane, the sun is the symbol and the tangible representative of the Deity."
Aïvanhov was always careful to emphasize, however, that the sun should not be worshipped as God: "God must always be sought above and beyond forms.""God is utterly ineffable, beyond our powers of conception; there is no question of thinking the sun is God."
"So, when you are gazing at the sun, try to sense that you are gazing at God's most perfect representative on earth. This sensation will contribute to raising the vibrations of your being to a higher level. All the elements will be exalted in you; you will be launched into the farthest regions of space, and even the notion of time will be abolished. Like God, you will be living in eternity."

Acharya Jowel is being recognised as Surya Swami for his Suryayog practice that is gaining a lot of followers in Mumbai. He says: "Through Suryayog, your mind naturally begins to concentrate, which is the aim of all spiritual processes. The sun's rays collide with our thoughts and create silence. The mind is too powerful to be managed by ordinary human consciousness. The photons from the solar system help to control the mind."

Dimbeswar Basumatary, a 24-year-old college dropout from Balimari village west of Assam’s capital Guwahati, has sun-gazing as his passion. He has baffled ophthalmologists by staring at the sun for hours without blinking, while staring at a radiant sun for just 90 seconds can cause solar burn or retina damage.
He claimed that he had tried not eating anything for four days and did not experience hunger or thirst because the sun gives him food for survival in the form of solar energy.
A senior ophthalmologist Biraj Jyoti Goswami of the Sankardev Netralaya, a premier eye hospital in Guwahati, said that Basumatary had been examined a number of times and was found to have good colour vision with no significant problems detected so far. (Youth’s Sun-Gazing Baffles Eye Specialists, The Star, 17 December 2002)

Sunyogi Umasankar, an Indian Yogi, was born in 1967 in Lachipur, near Calcutta, into a Hindu family.
During his time at the ashram of Pondicherry, he spent every morning meditating on a rock looking out at the sun's reflection off the sea. His daily meditation upon the reflected sunlight onto the sea water, which is a polarized light, gave him great pleasure and became aware that, through this method of meditation, he was somehow able to absorb powerful energies from the sun's rays. He began to experiment by looking directly at the sun, initially as it was rising, then day by day he began to concentrate on it as it rose higher into the sky. He continued his meditation and after a couple of months the sun started to appear as a "clear hazy ring with soft blue sky inside". The harsh brightness disappeared and he felt it become increasingly soothing. As time went on, he started to see "seven bright colours radiating from the sun, slowly reaching closer to the ground".
During his three month period of concentrating on the sun, Swamiji had developed a great interest in the way that trees and plants are able to receive energy directly from sunlight. His discoveries now made him believe that he had found a way of absorbing the sun's energy directly into his body, charging his body's cells with kinetic energy and therefore removing the need to eat food. So, as an experiment, Swamiji stopped eating breakfast and continued concentrating on the sun. Six months later, he stopped eating his dinner, then six months after that, he stopped eating food at all. From the 17th August until the 7th December 1996, Swamiji stopped eating and sleeping altogether. His body weight remained the same and he continued his daily routine working in the ashram in a perfect state of health.

Hira Ratan Manek (HRM) was born on 12th of September 1937 in Bodhavad, India, was raised in Calicut, Kerala, India, where he had his Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Kerala. After graduation, he joined the family business, which was shipping and spice trading, and continued working there until he retired in 1992. After he retired, he began to study on sun gazing, in which he had been interested since his childhood. After working 3 years on this method, he was able to find the secrets of sun gazing. During his study, he was mainly inspired from the teachings of Lord Mahavir of Jains, who was also practicing this method two thousand and six hundred years ago. He walked in the sun for long periods of time. As he kept walking in the sun, he felt progressively energized. He also felt less and less need to eat food. There was no compulsion to do a fast; no will power was necessary. He follows the jain way of fasting and he takes only water after sunrise & before sunset. He has done fasting for 211 days, from 19th June 1995 to 15th Jan 96. The fast ended in the Jain temple situated in the Gujarat. When he completed the 211 days fast, his weight was reduced by 41 kg. and the Sugar level (Glucose) was lowered to 43. "Medical Science says that when the glucose level of a human being decreasing below 50, then the situation becomes dangerous, even though in his case nothing has append." Said Dr. P.D.Doshi the secretary of Health Care International Multitherapy Institute.

HRM started a 411 days fast at 1st January 2000 and was ready to go for continuous medical checkup during his fasting. The medical team is led by Health Care International Multitherapy Institute & Jain Doctors Federation jointly. It is fully supported by Jain Yuvak Mahasangh President Dr. Jitubhai Shah.
HRM has has completed 166 days of fast on 14th June 2000. His initial weight was 77 kg was reduced to 62kg. All other parameters were normal. On 14th Februry 2001 he completed 411 days of fasting. Except for loss of 19 Kg weight (58 kg, which was stable with no further weight loss for last 3 months) a slight reduction of pulse rate and B.P. and definite reduction of respiratory rate (from 18 to now 10/minute) amazingly, there is no other medical abnormality. He has stopped passing stool after the 16th day of fasting and urine output was maintained at around 600 to 800 c.c. His blood sugar was between 60 and 90.

Even though HRM claims to have given up solid food, during the year 2005 he was filmed eating into an Indian restaurant. He recognized, after being faced with the evidence, that he had eaten while telling his followers that he only consumed coffee and buttermilk.
No person who followed his protocol/method managed so far to give up food, or to live only on liquid food.

Nikolay Nikolayevich Dolgorukiy is a 49-years old Ukrainian who lives only on green tea, vegetable broths or boiled water with honey or with seasoning for fish-soup. "Earlier I had drunk milk. I have already left milk. Now I drink vegetable broths", — says Nikolay.
Nikolay saw “terrible” dreams during the first 2 weeks after he stopped eating - as if he eats appetizing buns. The man waked up in cold perspiration with the thought: “Do I really fail?” Feeling of hunger disappeared later. The indifference to food and feeling of perfect soul rest appeared then.
Nikolay lost 7 kg during almost 1000 days of sun-diet. The heart problems and stomach aches disappeared and he feels as if he is 30 years old. His personal record of non-stop sungazing is of 13 hours. He makes press-ups with one arm for 30 times.
The doctors consider that his life is supported by the several litres of drinks, daily: milk, tea, honey-drink have all necessary substances for organism (calcium, proteins, carbohydrates, microelements). Other important factors were autosuggestion and willpower.

SUN GAZING HELPS FASTING

There are two mechanisms by which sunlight suppresses the hunger:

by stimulating melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH) production into the pituitary gland;
by stimulating serotonin production and suppressing melatonin production into the pineal gland.

Exposure to sunlight makes pituitary gland to MSH. MSH stimulates the pigmentation of the skin, but it is also anorexigenic (suppresses hunger). Injection of MSH in one of the lateral ventricles of rodents leads to suppression of food intake in a dose-dependent manner.
There was proven the physiological suppression of MSH under fasting. However, sun gazing overrides this mechanism. MSH is leading to increased metabolism and accelerates weight loss during a fast, by increasing the accessibility of fat stores.

The rate of production of serotonin by the brain was directly related to the prevailing duration of bright sunlight and rose rapidly with increased luminosity.
To transform tryptophan into serotonine, vitamin B6 is required. Consuming more protein than you need, requires extra vitamin B6 (and B2 and folic acid). Consuming too much proteinous food inhibits serotonine production. Consuming too much protein increases blood-phenylalanine level. The amino acid phenylalanine inhibits serotonine production, through inhibiting decarboxylation of 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophane into serotonine. Consuming too much protein increases blood-leucine level. The amino acid leucine enhances tryptophan-pyrrolase, irreversibly decomposing tryptophan.
A common cause of obesity is the serotonin-deficiency. Symptoms include sugar cravings, food obsession, binge eating, depression, anxiety, and phobias. Fasting results in increased turnover of brain serotonin (Curzon et al, 1972).
Sunlight, or simulated sunlight, stimulates the thyroid gland which boosts metabolism and fights obesity.

Melatonin is produced, in the absence of sunlight, by pineal gland. Stress, refined sugars, and other factors that increase epinephrine output will also increase melatonin production. This is the cause of stress induced obesity.
Melatonin does inhibit the pituitary secretion of melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH), which leads to increased hunger. That's why hunger is hard to control during the night and that's why the Ramadan fasting is maintained until sunset.
Melatonin suppresses the production of insulin by the pancreas, and therefore causes a rise in blood sugar. In contrast, calcium and vitamin D appears to stimulate the production of insulin. Exposure to sunlight lowers blood sugar by stimulating its storage in the muscles and liver. Diabetics are benefited by getting moderate amounts of sunshine, but lengthy sunbathing is not recommended.
The pineal gland produces melatonin from serotonin, causing a decrease of the serotonin level.

Twenty-two patients with both SAD and bulimia received a four-week trial of light therapy, with each session lasting 30 minutes to one hour.
10 of the 22 patients had a complete remission of depressive symptoms following the trial, while the number of binges decreased by an average of 46%, and the number of purging events dropped by 36%, they report.
Norman Rosenthal, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and author of the book Winter Blues, believes that light affects the brain in such a way as to both diminish the need for food and to dampen the need for the good feelings that come with purging.
Rosenthal also says that light increases brain levels of serotonin, a chemical involved in mood that also regulates the sense of "satiety" -- the feeling of being full after eating.
Vegetarian and vegan diets are exceptionally poor or completely lacking in vitamin D predisposing to an absolute need for UV-B sunlight.
Obesity is associated with vitamin-D deficiency. In fact, obese persons have impaired production of UV-B-stimulated D and impaired absorption of food source and supplemental D.
When the diet lacks calcium, whether from D or calcium deficiency, there is an increase in fatty acid synthase, an enzyme that converts calories into fat. Higher levels of calcium with adequate vitamin D inhibit fatty acid synthase while diets low in calcium increase fatty acid synthase by as much as five-fold. In one study, genetically obese rats lost 60 percent of their body fat in six weeks on a diet that had moderate calorie reduction but was high in calcium. All rats supplemented with calcium showed increased body temperature indicating a shift from calorie storage to calorie burning (thermogenesis).

SUNLIGHT REDUCES FATIGUE

Indoor light is missing the ultraviolet (UV) component of the sunlight. When sunlight passes through the windows, the glass is removing the UV component. Electric light is also missing the UV radiation, because it is absorbed by the glass of the bulbs. However, special bulbs, made of quartz, are providing full-spectrum light. Various laboratory tests and on-site studies have shown that UV-inclusive light helps workers reduce fatigue and accidents and dramatically increases productivity. Normal fluorescent lighting actually increases fatigue and drains the body of energy and vitamin A.

Carbohydrates in the diet are broken down into molecules of sugar, which either circulate as blood sugar and are therefore readily available but also readily lost, or else they are stored for later use as glycogen. Glycogen molecules consist of thousands of glucose or sugar units joined together in numbers of small clusters. Each cluster contains thirty four molecules of glucose. It represents the main source of energy for normal physical exertion, and is the limiting factor for endurance. When all the available glycogen in muscle is used up, the muscle relies on what energy can be brought to it in the blood. One of the most important effects of physical training is to increase the store of glycogen in the muscle, and this explains why athletes normally do not train for two or three days before a competitive event - it takes this long for the glycogen store in the muscles to be built up again.
When human subjects are exposed to UV, the glycogen level in their tissues dives in the first hour or so, and then the enzymes which manufacture glycogen are stimulated. The level of glycogen stored in the tissues rises steadily for about sixteen hours. (Ohkawara, A., "Glycogen Metabolism Following Ultraviolet Irradiation", J. Invest Derm: 59; 264-268, 1972)
In parallel with the increase in glycogen stores goes a decrease in blood sugar - or, more precisely, a normalization of abnormal blood sugar. Although most cells in the body do not depend on glucose, being able to use their glycogen stores, the one tissue that is most dependent on blood glucose, and which uses up twenty per cent of it, is the brain. When the blood sugar goes down we tend to find ourselves running out of energy and becoming drowsy, irritable and emotional.
Blood-sugar level of rabbits during constant exposure to red light causes it to go up rapidly while ultraviolet light reduces it. This effect was further confirmed in human studies when it was shown that the blood sugar of diabetics was also lowered by ultraviolet.
Pincussen showed that by using daily doses of UV light, he could bring the blood sugar of diabetics down very effectively. There was an immediate improvement after the first day of treatment, and over a period of up to a fortnight the blood sugar slowly settled down to normal and stayed there. It showed no signs of decreasing to below the normal level, so there is no reason for us to think that UV has a harmful hypoglycemic effect. (Pincussen, L., "Effect of Ultraviolet and Visible Rays on Carbohydrate Metabolism", Arcb Phys Ther: 18; 7SO-7S5, 1937)
Exposure to sunlight rises insulin level, which lowers blood sugar by pushing sugar into cells, where it provides them energy. Sunlight entering the eyes prevents the pineal from inhibiting the pituitary, and thereby provides a counterbalance to the hypoglycemic effect of sunlight hitting the skin. (Relkin, R. (ed), The Pineal Gland, Elsevier, New York, 1983. 13Tanaka, Y., "Effect of 1,2S-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 on Insulin Secretion: Direct or Mediated", Endocrinology: 118(5); 1971-1974, 1986)
HRM feels little or no fatigue, and sleeps just for a couple of hours a day. Sometimes he goes for a whole week without sleep and without ill effects.

SUNLIGHT CURES SAD AND REDUCES STRESS

Patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a regular recurrence of depression during the fall and winter, caused by a drop in serotonin levels in the brains, often improve after basking under bright light, a technique known as phototherapy. Little is known about why phototherapy works, but Dr. Gavin Lambert of the Baker Heart Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and his team discovered that serotonin levels rise in the brain on days with longer periods of sunlight, regardless of the season.
The Australian researchers took blood samples from the jugular veins of 101 healthy men and compared serotonin levels based on weather conditions and seasons. They found the turnover of serotonin was lowest in the winter and the amount of serotonin produced by the brain was directly linked to prevailing sunlight duration. (Lancet , news release, Dec. 5, 2002)
The symptoms of SAD and the “winter blues” can include fatigue, craving carbohydrates, irritability, sleeping more and a change of personality from your summer self to your winter self. Four times as many women as men suffer from SAD. There is little motivation to get up in the morning or even to live at all. Low sex drive, overeating to compensate and the inevitable weight gain add to the misery. Most people with SAD symptoms, show changes in their sleep/wake patterns and melatonin levels.
A recent study at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City found that people who got a burst of artificial light in the morning were twice as likely to overcome their seasonal depression as were those who received the light in the evening. About 80% of sufferers show the sleep delayed pattern. Their melatonin production and sleep periods begin later at night, and creep into the normal AM waking hours. These people have trouble waking up in the morning, and often never feel fully awake, even if they have slept longer than usual. This group should do sun gazing early in the morning. The other 20% who feel best in the morning, then fade steadily by afternoon, often going to sleep hours earlier than normal, should do sun gazing late afternoon. These people feel better when treated with bright light, of over 2500 lux. The average person responds to light therapy in 2 weeks, but some people take up to a month. However, they get worse again when given melatonin capsules. (Rosenthal, N.E, et al., 'Seasonal Affective Disorder and Phototherapy', Ann. New York Acad. Sci: 435; 260-267, 1985)

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that conveys the positive sensations of satiety, satisfaction and relaxation. It regulates appetite and when converted to melatonin helps us to sleep.
A deficiency of Serotonin in the brain can cause endogenous depression, upsets the appetite mechanism and may lead to obesity or other eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa.
Sugar consumption stimulates the body to produce insulin, a hormone which transports glucose, fatty acids and amino acids (except tryptophan) into body cells. Thus insulin speeds up the absorption of amino acids other than tryptophan. Normally, tryptophan must compete with other amino acids for entry into the brain, but insulin eliminates the competition, allowing tryptophan levels to rise in the brain. This leaves tryptophan available for absorption and conversion to Serotonin (via 5-hydroxytryptophan, 5-HTP) in the presence of vitamin B6 and magnesium, and presto we feel happy.
In a study on rats, insulin enhanced Serotonin (5-HT) release (+81%), but only 45 min after the beginning of its infusion.
A person low in Serotonin will be inclined to consume greater amounts of sugar in an attempt to increase Serotonin production and this may lead to sugar addiction.
High levels of insulin - hyperinsulinism - blocks the utilization of fat cells (adipocytes) as a source of energy, thus causing obesity.
Estrogen might inhibit vitamin B6 status and decrease brain serotonin levels. That's why SAD is more common in women.
Omega-3 fatty acids in fish oil and flax-seed oil raise serotonin levels, although how they do this is unclear.

A recent controlled experiment by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle found that a simulated dawn—a gradual brightening for ninety minutes in the early morning—was more effective than a sudden burst of light for half an hour (Psychology Today, Mar/April, 2002).
Daniel F. Kripke, MD and professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, states that, "The response to light therapy is quite rapid, often within two weeks, which is more rapid than the response to anti-depressant drugs or psychotherapy."
"In 1980, Dr. Fritz Hollwich conducted a study comparing the effects of sitting under strong artificial cool-white (non-full spectrum) illumination versus the effects of sitting under strong artificial illumination that simulates sunlight (full-spectrum). Using changes in the endocrine system to evaluate these effects, he found stress like levels of ACTH and cortisol (the stress hormones) in individuals in sitting under the cool-white tubes. These changes were totally absent in the individuals sitting under the sunlight-simulating tubes." (Liberman, Jacob, 1991, Light Medicine of the Future. New Mexico: Bear & Company Publishing)

The researchers from the Kobe University found in mice that light sparks a cascade of gene activity in the adrenal gland through its effects on the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). When the researchers severed the SCN, light's effect on the gland was lost.
"The surge of blood corticosterone after light exposure indicates that environmental signals are instantly converted to glucocorticoid signals in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid," said Hitoshi Okamura of the Kobe University.
Glucocorticoids--including cortisone in humans and corticosterone in mice--play many roles throughout the body, including metabolic response to starvation, antiinflammatory immune response, and the timing of circadian rhythms in peripheral organs.
"It might also explain why bright light therapy can aid patients with other disorders--such as major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder--not typically associated with the circadian clock," Ueli Schibler and Steven Brown said in an accompanying commentary.

Sunlight exposure decreases adrenaline and noradrenalin levels, reducing their stressing effect, and releases endorphins, which promote the feeling of "well-being". It also increases vitamin D level. Seasonal Affective Disorder has been treated successfully with vitamin D. In a recent study covering 30 days of treatment comparing vitamin D supplementation with two-hour daily use of light boxes, depression completely resolved in the D group but not in the light box group. High stress may increase the need for vitamin D or UV-B sunlight and calcium.

Adults with Alzheimer’s disease have increased risk of hip fractures. This may be because many Alzheimer’s patients are homebound, and frequently sunlight deprived. One study of women with Alzheimer’s disease found that decreased bone mineral density was associated with a low intake of vitamin D and inadequate sunlight exposure.
Professor Dick Swaab, a Dutch Alzheimer's specialist, says that simply increasing the daily exposure to sunlight can help to reduce the restlessness exhibited by many patients, causing many to wander at night. Increased light may even improve their memory, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. Swaab suspects that the sunlight helps to correct an imbalance in the brain chemical melatonin, although a clinical study under way should confirm whether that's the actual reason for the improvements seen. Patients with AD produce much less melatonin than in other individuals of the same age (Liu 1999).

SUNLIGHT AFFECTS HORMONES' LEVELS

According to Dr. Julian Whitaker (Health & Healing, Vol.2,No.13,12/92), "light enters your eyes and has a stimulatory effect on your hypothalamus, pineal gland, and pituitary gland--the master hormone-secreting gland of the body. Lights that approximate the sun's full spectrum of energy keep your glands stimulated, happy, and healthy. Lights that do not, can make you sick".
A San Diego Psychiatrist, Dr. Barbara Perry, has found that women treated with two hours of bright light in the evening experienced a reversal of their PMS symptoms. Her findings, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry ("Morning Versus Bright Light Treatment of Late Luteal Phase Dysphoric Disorder" 9/89), indicate that bright-light treatment may become an effective alternative treatment to drug therapy for PMS.

As puberty progresses and body size increases, the level of melatonin decreases to its adult norm, and the level of LH rises. (Waidbauser F., and Dietzel M., "Daily and Annual Rhythms in Human Melatonin Secretion: Role in Puberty Control", Ann. New York Acad. Sci: 453; 205-214, 1985) LH also peaks at the time of ovulation, and melatonin shows a drop at the same time, which is probably due to suppression of melatonin production by estrogen.
Dr. Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Diego, enlisted 11 healthy male volunteers, aged 19 to 30, to test whether light affects the body levels of luteinizing hormone, which is produced by the pituitary gland and assists in the production of other hormones, such as testosterone, in men. The men woke at 5 a.m. for five days and spent an hour in front of a light box giving off 1,000 lux, or much more brightness than typical indoor lighting. Later, they spent five days in front of a light box that only gave out 10 lux. The lux is the measurement unit for illumination. In our homes we have 200 to 300 lux. A well-lit office may have 500 lux, whereas a sunny day produces 50,000 to 100,000 lux.
Researchers found the body levels of luteinizing hormone grew by 69.5 percent in the men while they were exposed to the high levels of light.
The researchers didn't look at women because the rapidly cycling hormones in their bodies would make it difficult to study the effect of light, Kripke says. However, luteinizing hormone does affect ovulation, he adds, and "we think light is potentially a very promising treatment for women who have ovulatory problems or long and irregular menstrual cycles."
Dr. Norman Shealy from Missouri, found increases in the levels of various hormones and neurochemicals after patients had been treated for 20 minutes with pulsed light. (Shealy, CN, et al., "Effects of Color Photostimulation Upon Neurochemicals and Neurohormones", J. Neurol Orthop Med Surg, 17:95-97, 1996.)

In an open study 17 women with confirmed, severe and long-standing premenstrual syndrome, was done a photic stimulation with a flickering red light, every day for up to four menstrual cycles. At the end of treatment prospectively recorded median luteal symptom scores were reduced by 76%, with significant reductions for depression, anxiety, affective lability, irritability, poor concentration, fatigue, food cravings, bloating and breast pain. Twelve of the 17 patients (71%) no longer had the premenstrual syndrome. (D. J. ANDERSON, N .J. LEGG and DEBORAH A. RIDOUT, Department of Neurology and Medical Statistics Unit, Royal Postgraduate Medical School, London, UK, Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (1997) Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 76-79)

Bright Light Increases Testosterone
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have found that the levels of a pituitary hormone that increases testosterone are enhanced after exposure to bright light in the early morning. The findings suggest that light exposure might serve some of the same functions for which people take testosterone and other androgens.
One of the study's authors, Daniel Kripke, M.D. UCSD professor of psychiatry, added "the study also supports data that bright light can trigger ovulation in women, which is also controlled by luteinizing hormone (LH), the pituitary hormone we studied."
Published in the current issue of the journal Neuroscience Letters (341, 2003, 25-28), the study looked at LH excretion following bright light exposure (1,000 lux) from 5-6 a.m. each morning for five days in 11 healthy men ages 19-30. The same group of men had their LH measured again after exposure to a placebo light (less than 10 lux) from 5-6 a.m. for five days.
The researchers found that LH levels were increased 69.5 percent after bright light exposure in the early morning.

When researchers gave doses of ultraviolet to subjects in Boston, USA, they found that a course of five doses, of increasing duration, each of them sufficient to produce slight reddening of the skin, could double the male hormone output. Some increase could be achieved whichever area of skin received the irradiation, but while exposing the back produced a doubling in hormones, exposing the skin of the genitals could cause the hormone level to triple.
The principal male hormone, testosterone, is known to be produced by the effect of sunlight on the skin, and particularly on the skin of the genitals. Its level into the urine rise throughout the spring and summer months, being about one third higher by the end of August than in February. (Myerson, A., and Neustadt, R., "Influence of Ultraviolet Irradiation upon Excretion of Sex Hormones In the Male", Endocrinology:25; 7, 1939)
This ties in with the studies which have shown that levels of testosterone, the major male hormone, rise by about twenty per cent through the summer, reaching a peak in September. (Aschoff, J., "Annual Rhythms in Man", in Aschoff, J. (ed.), Handbook of Behavioural Neurobiology, Plenum Press, New York, 1981)

The levels of 17-ketosterolds, the adrenal steroids, which are produced in response to stress, on the other hand, fall steadily to a trough in August. The further north of the equator, the more marked is the trend. Clearly, at these latitudes our bodies find winter something of a strain.

Wurtman and Neer (1975) suggest that nonvisual retinal responses to light mediate a number of neuroendocrine hormonal
functions, which, in turn, regulate such mechanisms as pubescence, ovulation and a wide variety of daily rhythms. Faber Birren has been quoted as saying that ultraviolet radiation intensifies the enzymatic processes of metabolisms, increases hormone system activity, and improves the tone of the central nervous and muscular systems (A Summary of Light-Related Studies 1992).

Melatonin levels decreased in some of the blind patients when they were exposed to light, even though they couldn't see that light. But when the researchers blindfolded these patients and then turned on the lights, melatonin levels did not drop. Those findings suggest that although their eyes could not sense light in the normal way, they still were somehow regulating the release of melatonin, providing evidence that the eyes are involved in functions other than vision.
Recent work by the Van Gelder lab, in close collaboration with researchers at Novartis Gene Research Foundation, has shown the protein melanopsin is critical to these non-visual light responses.
UV radiation (200-400 nm) is generally considered to be outside the range of visible illumination for mammals. Experiments on hamsters confirm that wavelengths as low as 305 nm are transmitted through the clear ocular media to the retina. Furthermore, low irradiances of broadband (340-405 nm) and monochromatic (360 nm) UV radiation are capable of suppressing high nocturnal levels of pineal melatonin (Brainard GC, Podolin PL, Leivy SW, Rollag MD, Cole C, Barker FM: Near-ultraviolet radiation suppresses pineal melatonin content. Endocrinology 1986, 119:2201-2205)

The 446–477 nm portion of the spectrum is the most potent for suppressing melatonin secretion. These data suggest that the primary photoreceptor system for melatonin suppression is distinct from the rod and cone photoreceptors for vision. Finally, this action spectrum suggests that there is a novel retinaldehyde photopigment that mediates human circadian photoreception. (Action Spectrum for Melatonin Regulation in Humans: Evidence for a Novel Circadian Photoreceptor George C. Brainard, John P. Hanifin, Jeffrey M. Greeson, Brenda Byrne, Gena Glickman, Edward Gerner, and Mark D. Rollag, The Journal of Neuroscience, August 15, 2001, 21(16):6405–6412)

Chickens were raised with translucent occluders both under normal light cycles (12-h light/12-h dark) and in constant light (CL). Under normal light cycles, eyes with occluders became very myopic. When the chickens were raised in CL, development of deprivation myopia was reduced (8 days CL) or entirely blocked (13 days CL). Thirteen days of CL resulted in a dramatic reduction of retinal dopamine (DA) and DOPAC levels, but serotonin levels were also lowered. The results suggest that deprivation myopia requires normal diurnal DA rhythms to develop. (Bartmann M, Schaeffel F, Hagel G, Zrenner E., Constant light affects retinal dopamine levels and blocks deprivation myopia but not lens-induced refractive errors in chickens, Vis Neurosci. 1994 Mar-Apr;11(2):199-208)

In 1980, Hollwich studied the levels of ACTH, the adrenal-stimulating hormone, in the blood under natural and artificial light. After a fortnight in light from "cool white" fluorescent tubes, his subjects' ACTH levels had climbed to abnormally high, stress levels. Two weeks under daylight returned them to normal. But when the lights used were of a full-spectrum type, there was no significant increase in ACTH levels. In both cases, the light intensity was high - high enough, at 3500 lux, to suppress melatonin. (Hollwich, F., "The Effect of Natural and Artificial Light via the Eye on the Hormonal and Metabolic Balance of Animal and Man", Ophthalmologica: 180(4); 188-197, 1980)

UV light activates a skin hormone called solitrol, which is thought to be a form of Vitamin D3. It works to counterbalance melatonin, the hormone of darkness, produced by the pineal at night. Solitrol, the hormone of light, affects regulation of the whole body including the immune system, mood, circadian rhythms and seasonal responses. (Stumpf, W. (1988). "Vitamin D - Solitrol the heliogenic steroid hormone: Somatotrophic activator and modulator." Histochemistry 89: 209-19.)

ORANGE AND RED LIGHT

In the article "Eye protective techniques for bright light,'' published in Ophthalmology 90, 937-944 (1983), David H. Sliney wrote: "When the sun is low in the sky it is yellow or orange indicating that the hazardous blue light has been scattered out of the direct path of sunlight, and the sun may be fixated for many minutes without risk."
From 50% (at noon) to 93% (at dawn and dusk) of the near ultraviolet radiation (397 nm) is scattered into the sky (Jerlov, N.G.,1976. Marine optics. New York: Elsevier Scientific Publishing Co.) Sunlight has the highest ratio of near-infrared light at sunrise and sunset, when the ultraviolet and blue radiation are scattered while red and infrared are passing through the atmosphere. That's why the sun is red at these moments, which are the best for improving the vision.

Exposure to near-infrared light helps protect the retina from damage, according to a new study.
Near-infrared light which is able to increase the amount of energy in cells, say researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin. They studied the new methods in rats whose retinas had been damaged by methanol, a toxic chemical. It is known that methanol harms the mitochondria, the energy-producing structures within the cells. But exposure to an LED light could prevent this damage. The researchers believe that this method, which they call photobiomodulation, may turn out to be a non-invasive way of treating retinal injury and preventing blindness.

In the late 1990s, lab studies on cells showed that near-infrared wavelengths can boost the activity of mitochondria, the crucial powerhouses in cells. In a 2002 study backed by the National Institutes of Health and the Persistence in Combat program from the Pentagon's research arm, Harry Whelan blinded rats by giving them high doses of methanol, or wood alcohol. This is converted by the body into formic acid, a toxic chemical that inhibits the activity of mitochondria. Within hours, the rats' energy-hungry retinal cells and optic nerves began to die, and the animals went completely blind within one to two days. But if the rats were treated with LED light with a wavelength of 670 nanometres for 105 seconds at 5, 25 and 50 hours after being dosed with methanol, they recovered 95 per cent of their sight. Remarkably, the retinas of these rats looked indistinguishable from those of normal rats. "There was some tissue regeneration, and neurons, axons and dendrites may also be reconnecting," says Whelan. Whelan and his team have reportedly shown that skin and muscle cells grown in cultures and exposed to the LED infrared light grow 150 to 200 percent faster than ground control cultures not stimulated by the light.

The specially designed near-infrared LED generates infrared light that penetrates to a depth of 23 centimeters, or more that nine inches without damaging the skin. Though three times brighter that the sun, the LED is very safe and easy to use, as well as portable. DNA synthesis in muscle cells quintupled after a single application of LEDs flashing at the 680-, 730- and 880-nanometer wavelengths, according to Whelan. He identified more than 20 genes that typically are associated with retinal damage, for example, and "the LED alters all of them."
"Some increased, some decreased," she added. "But they were all brought back to normal."
Whelan thinks that the LED pulses give the retinal cells extra energy, allowing them to heal more quickly.

A natural way to expose the retina to infrared light, recommended for persons sensitive to sunlight or that have photophobia, who usually wear sunglasses, is to watch into the direction of the sun, preferably at noon, with the eyelids closed. The eyelids act as filters, letting only the infrared light to reach the retina. It is necessary a long time exposure, from 20 to 30 minutes, because the intensity infrared light which reach the retina in this way is hundreds of times lower than that generated by the LEDs. The big advantages are that this therapy is available to anybody and is totally free.

Sunlight influences the metabolism of fatty acids in the retina. "Gazing directly into the sun actually improves sight and aids in overcoming disease" (Dr. Herbert Shelton).
After discontinuing wearing his eyeglasses, Dr. John Ott wrote that he exposed his eyes to sunlight without lenses and his vision was much improved. He recommended similar therapy to his friends and they gained similar improvement in their vision.
Writing in Psychology (July, 1929), Dr. R. A. Richardson, optician, says: "On a recent trip to Africa, I took advantage of the opportunity to find out whether cataract and blindness, often found there, were caused by the sun's intense light and heat, as I had been told. To my surprise, I discovered that the persons blinded by cataract were not those who worked in the open sunshine, but in the small shops and bazaars of Tunis. Questioning them, I traced their trouble to over-indulgence in proteins, sugars and starches, nicotine and caffeine."

An elderly man in the audience arose, and identified himself as a veteran of the Korean war. He had, he said, worn glasses for much of his life, and had been POW held by the Koreans for about 9 months near the end of the Koran war. At some point, an apparently sadistic but curious medical doctor at the prison camp had selected 10 men – this man was one of the ten – and forced them to stare at the sun for 10 hours per day, including high noon. If a prisoner resisted or looked away, or closed their eyes, guards would beat them, and the prisoner risked death. While the former POW reported that it was decidedly unpleasant sitting and staring at the sun for 10 hours a day, almost non-stop, and that he and the other prisoners all developed massive headaches and neckaches, none apparently experienced any long-term negative effect upon their vision or their eyes. Further, each man who had previously worn glasses (the POW telling the tale was among them) shortly discovered that their vision had drastically improved and that they no longer needed to wear glasses. The ex-POW relating the tale told the class that he had never since needed glasses, and that he was now in his seventies and his eyesight was perfect.
Folks often report really nasty headaches and sinus pains which may last for days afterward, especially when first starting. The headaches and migraines are caused by the increased levels of serotonin, induced by sun gazing. Serotonin is a potent vasoconstrictor and the headaches and migraines are the consequence of that.

Three patients who had malignant melanomas of the uvea and normal foveas agreed to look at the sun for one hour before enucleation of the eyes. Two of the patients sungazed with an undilated pupil, and 24 hours later, recovered their preexposure visual acuity with no detectable scotoma. One of the patients looked at the sun with a partially dilated pupil, and 24 hours later her visual acuity dropped from 20/20 to 20/25. (The human fovea after sungazing, Tso MO, La Piana FG. Trans Sect Ophthalmol Am Acad Ophthalmol Otolaryngol. 1975 Nov-Dec;79(6):OP788-95)

According to one scientific research report (ISBN: 0-8194-1500-6) blood exposed to infrared light had less blood cell aggregation (clumping together) which would free up more surface area of red blood cells to transfer nutrients and oxygen to tissues.
Britton Chance of the University of Pennsylvania has shown that about 50 per cent of the near-infrared light is absorbed by mitochondrial proteins called chromophores. Whelan and his colleagues think the light boosts the activity of a chromophore called cytochrome c oxidase, a key component of the energy-generating machinery. Whelan's theory is that the photons of the infrared light give the cytochrome electrons it ordinarily would get from sugar. Light becomes a substitute for food, basically.
Evidence indicates that cells absorb photons and transform their energy into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the form of energy that cells utilize. The resulting ATP is then used to power metabolic processes; synthesize DNA, RNA, proteins, enzymes, and other products needed to repair or regenerate cell components; foster mitosis or cell proliferation; and restore homeostasis.

After a crush injury to the sciatic nerve in rats, low-power laser irradiation was applied transcutaneously to corresponding segments of the spinal cord immediately after closing the wound by using 16 mW, 632 nm He-Ne laser. The laser treatment was repeated 30 minutes daily for 21 consecutive days. RESULTS: The electrophysiologic activity of the injured nerves (compound muscle action potentials--CMAPs) was found to be approximately 90% of the normal precrush value and remained so for up to a long period of time. In the control nonirradiated group, electrophysiologic activity dropped to 20% of the normal precrush value at day 21 and showed the first signs of slow recovery 30 days after surgery. The two groups were found to be significantly different during follow-up period. (Effects of laser irradiation on the spinal cord for the regeneration of crushed peripheral nerve in rats)

Seth Pancost, in his book "Red and Blue Light: or, Light and Its Rays as Medicine" (Philadelphia, J. M. Stoddart & Co. 1877) wrote that: "These two rays produce the two opposite forces, or principles of light -- the Red the positive, polarizing, integrating force or principle, the Blue the negative, depolarizing, disintegrating force or principle. He used red light for physical and mental strain leading to exhaustion (pains in back of the head, shortness of breath, fluttering of heart, compressible pulse, loss of appetite, constipation and phosphoric urine).
In The Principles of Light and Color (1878), Edwin Babbitt recommended red light for: all cold, dormant and chronic conditions; all anemic or impoverished states of the blood; all pale, sallow complexions with poor arterial blood; constipation of the bowels; suppressed menstruation; dormant liver, kidneys and lower spine; all hard, chronic tumors and negative inflammations; bronchitis, ulceration of lungs, paralysis, chromic rheumatism, chills; despondency, stupid brain, dropsy, exhaustion, etc.

The evidence suggests that red light and infrared radiation speeds many stages of healing. It accelerates inflammation, promotes fibroblast proliferation, enhances chondroplasia, upregulates the synthesis of type I and type III procollagen mRNA, quickens bone repair and remodeling, fosters revascularization of wounds, and overall accelerates tissue repair in experimental and clinical models. Recent studies of human cases of healing-resistant ulcers suggest that doses ranging from 1 to 6 J/cm² results in healing of 55% to 68% of ulcers that did not respond to any other known treatment. In an experiment to examine the effects of 3 J/cm² dose of 830 nm light applied twice weekly on slow-healing diabetic leg ulcers in patients that, for at least 4 weeks, did not respond to conventional treatment, four of the seven cases treated (57%) responded positively with total healing of the ulcers achieved within 5 to 10 weeks.

SUNLIGHT, THE BILIRUBIN AND THE LIVER

Bilirubin is produced in bone marrow cells and in the liver as the end product of red-blood-cell (hemoglobin) breakdown. The amount of bilirubin manufactured relates directly to the quantity of blood cells destroyed. About 0.5 to 2 grams are produced daily.
Newborns with moderately severe jaundice are placed under powerful florescent lights which are designed to emit light at a specific wavelength (range for maximum absorption of bilirubin is 400 - 500 nanometres, corresponding to blue near-UV light) which accomplish the isomerisation of unconjugated bilirubin in the skin. This molecule is converted from the toxic, fat soluble form which can enter and damage the baby's brain tissues to a harmless, water soluble form which is excreted in the urine and stool more readily.
Research of Dr. Dan Oren at Harvard has shown that SAD can be caused by excessive bilirubin. The idea behind it is basically that in the winter there is a lot less UV light to break down the bilirubin, which directly affects the brain to cause depression.

In the liver bilirubin conjugates with glucuronic acid made from the sugar glucose. It is then concentrated to about 1,000 times the strength found in blood plasma. Conjugated bilirubin passes from the gallbladder or liver into the intestine.
In the Chinese traditional medicine, "the eyes represent the orifices of the liver. When a person closes his/her eyes and falls asleep, the blood returns to the liver. From there it is transmitted to the eyes, and the ability to see results from this. When a person sleeps, now, the nameless fire within grows dim in order to revitalize." - Yang Jizhou, The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion (Zhenjiu Dacheng), ca. 1590
In the Suwen and Neijing it says, "Liver qi is in communication with the eyes, so the eyes will be able to distinguish the five colors." A person's eyesight may therefore also serve as an indicator for liver function. If the liver blood is insufficient, there will be a dryness of the eyes, blurred vision, myopia, "floaters" in the eyes, color blindness or night blindness.
For the yogis, the Surya chakra (Sun's wheel) controls the liver is assisting the Manipura chakra.

Dr. Holwich, professor of optical medicine, observed that blindness is often followed by a deterioration in many functions of the internal organs and in the secretions of the liver, gall bladder and pancreas. The heart's action is also affected, as is the peristaltic motion of the intestines. When sight is regained, an unmistakable activation of these organic functions is observable.
Dr Liberman observed that natural sunlight is required as a catalyst to ensure complete digestion.
Following several months of sun gazing, Ed from Netherlands noticed a better digestion, without the energy-drop he normally experienced after breakfast: "I reached 15 minutes and 20 seconds (of daily sun gazing) two days ago.[...] I also notice that the energy-drop I normally experienced after eating a cooked breakfast (two broiled eggs with 100g of roast beef and a lot of butter) has disappeared."

Russian experiments showed that animals exposed to the correct doses of sunlight were capable of clearing a wide range of toxins out of their system considerably quicker than animals reared away from the sun. The toxins that they studied included quartz and coal dusts, toxic minerals such as lead, cadmium and mercury, liver poisons such as carbon tetrachloride, and the neurotoxins which these days are so heavily used worldwide as pesticides. They found that sunlight speeded up the clearance of toxins from the body twice to as much as twenty times. The best effect was obtained when sunlight exposure had started some time before exposure to the toxin.
(Gabovich, R.D., et al., 'Effect of Ultraviolet Radiation on Tolerance of the Organism to Chemical Substances', Vestn Akad Med Nauk SSSR: 3; 26-28, 1975.)

The Syntonic Principle, Chapter X, Body Potential, Brain Waves and Action Currents, Spitler cites an experiment to confirm this hypothesis. He inserted a galvanometer between the brain and the liver of a rabbit to measure the voltage changes in response to red and blue light. When he flooded the eye with red light he recorded an increase voltage over time. Blue light produced the opposite result. The brain/liver charge drained faster than the body could replenish it.
In syntonic phototherapy, red light is prescribed for amblyopia because red allows retinal charge to build.

In his A Course in Specific Light Therapy (Actino Laboratories, Inc. Chicago, [1939]), Carl Loeb described the use of filter #1 (flame-red) as a "liver and renal energizer and sensory stimulant. Red typifies the basic principle of life. It stands for blood, heat, and expansion."

Colonel Dinshaw P. Ghadiali says in his Spectro-Chrome Metry Encyclopaedia (Spectro-Chrome Institute, Malaga, N.J., 1934, 1940):
"The color of the liver is red; it selects from the spectrum the red wave to build itself." The attributes of red include: Sensory Stimulant, an agent that increases the activity of the sensory nervous system; Liver energizer, an agent that activates the liver."

SUNLIGHT AND THE PINEAL GLAND

The Pineal Gland produces serotonin and is the richest site of serotonin in the brain. Serotonin is responsable for the "Psychadelic Experience". Considerable excess of serotonin was found in the Pineal Gland of mental patients & schizophrenics.
Administration of pineal extract to rats increased their life-span by up to twenty five per cent. (Ralph, C., "Pineal Bodies and Thermoregulation", Relkin, R., (ed), The Pineal Gland, Elsevier, New York, 1983)
The Pineal Gland metabolizes serotonin into the hormone Melatonin. Melatonin is secreted by the pineal gland around twilight, in response to the diminishing light, and helps in the sleep process.
The suppression of melatonin from the pineal gland requires a minimum intensity of 2500 lux, compared to the probably maximum of 1000 lux in indoor office environments. (Wurtman, R.J., and Moskowitz, M.A., The Pineal Organ, The New England Journal of Medicine 296; 23: 1329-1333, 1977)
The light frequency most effective at suppressing melatonin and therefore at altering biorhythms is between 450 and 550 nanometers. (Rosenthal, N.E., et al., 'Seasonal Affective Disorder and Phototherapy' Ann. New York Acad. Sci: 435; 254-260,1985) This is blue and green light. The effect spills over into the ultraviolet, but there is virtually no effect from the higher - yellow and red - frequencies. The level of light that is required for melatonin suppression is roughly that of a cloudy day. When our eyes are exposed to such level of light, our pineal stop producing melatonin within about half an hour. We know that it's not simply a psychological response, because it can still happen in blind people. (Wurtman, R.J., and Moskowitz, M.A., 'The Pineal Organ', New England Journal of Medicine: 296; 1329-1333, 1977) However, it is abolished with loss of the eyes themselves. This is because the pathway starts with the reception of light by cells in the retina but then travels by a different set of nerves from the optic nerve, which carries visual signals. This pathway leads by a circuitous route to the pineal, where the signal is given to turn off melatonin synthesis.
Certain body functions, such as the regulation of human sleep-wake cycles and other biorhythms, require exposure to intensities of 4000 lux or more.
Stress, refined sugars, and other factors that increase epinephrine output (as well as epinephrine medications) will increase melatonin production. The excess of melatonin cause alcoholism and whitens the skin.
Research by Dr. K. Blum at the University of Texas medical school showed that in total darkness rats preferred drinking alcohol to water, while if their pineal glands were removed their preferences would be reversed. Other studies where melatonin was injected into rats turned them into alcoholics. People from northern countries have increased melatonin, during the winter time, due to the weak sunlight, and that’s the reason they have a particular preference for alcohol..
The methoxyindoles are synthesized by the pineal in the absence of light and presumably exert inhibitory effects on the gonads.
Melatonin is the first substance that has been shown to safely and effectively lower core body temperature in humans.
Larval forms of amphibians undergo a marked blanching when maintained for a time in darkness. A similar response is displayed by many fishes. Blanching, which means the suppressing of melanin pigment, results from the release of melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine) from the pineal. Melatonin exerts a profound contracting effect on dermal melanophores (pigment pores) leading to rapid blanching.

MELANIN AND NEUROMELANIN

There are three types of melanin in humans:

Eumelanin: brown black pigment derived from tyrosine following its conversion to dopa (dihydroxyphenylalanine)
Phaomelanin: reddish-brown pigment which are cystine derivatives of eumelanin
Neuromelanin: dopamine with 10-20% incorporation of cysteine.

In plants and microorganisms is found a fourth type of melanin, called allomelanin (similar to eumelanin) formed from catechols via polyhydroxynapthalene. It has a self-assembled network structure, resembling a neural network. It provides basis for the neuro-network of plants, possibly conducting signals.
Melanins have unique properties:
– biopolymeric semiconductor (band gap of ~1.4eV – tuneable)
– biopolymeric photoconductor
– electronically bistable with a conducting transition at biological field strengths (McGinness, Cory & Procter, , Science, 1974)

The microscopic structure of iridescent bird feathers are made up of stacks of melanin rods within layers of keratin, creating a space lattice. This lattice acts as a photonic crystal, with the number and spacing of the rods determining the colour of that part of the feather.
The lattice constants for the blue, green, and yellow barbules are 140, 150, and 165 nm, respectively. The number of periods is 9–12 for the blue and green barbules, 6 for the yellow barbule (see electron microscope images of barbule structures).
Since the melanin granules have a much higher refractive index than the keratin the phenomenon of iridescence is possible.
Melanin absorbs much of the light not reflected by the iridescence and enhances the brilliance of the color. Additionally, at certain angles the reflected light will be highly polarized.

An experiment at the University of Arizona where male patients were injected with a melanin extract, was designed to see if skin could be chemically darkened to prevent skin cancer. Results showed, as a side effect, that men became sexually aroused.
Melanotan - a synthetic version of a natural cell-activating hormone called alpa-MSH (melanocyte stimulating hormone), which the body produces after a sunburn - was found to have other effects, including suppressing appetite and stimulating sexual desire. It works directly on the brain, where it affects a human's sexual desire as well as sexual performance.
According to Robins, 1991, darker pigmentation found in the genitals, may have evolved for the “protection of reproductive capacity”, in that the pigmentation protects gametes within the genitalia from ultraviolet radiation damage.
When the chest and back are exposed to sunlight, the male sex hormones may increase by up to 120%.

Neuromelanin is found into the eyes and in Substantia Nigra and Locus Coeruleus from brain. People with more eye melanin have less occurrence of macular degeneration; people with less eye melanin have greater occurrence of macular degeneration. About 15% of our original supply of melanin is lost in the eye by the age of forty and about 25% is lost by the age of fifty.
The brain center with the deepest pigmentation is the Locus Coeruleus or black dot. The Locus Coeruleus supplies the pineal gland with norepinephrine. The less melanin, the more calcified the pineal gland and less access the individual has to the spiritual world. Women with a calcified pineal gland (associated with a low production of melatonin) have a significantly greater risk of developing breast cancer. The pineal gland secretes melatonin, which activates the pituitary to release M.S.H. (Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone). It is in the melanocytes that melanin (Greek “melas”=black) is produced. Melanin is somewhat analogous to chlorophyll in plants.
Neuromelanin consists mostly of dopamine with 10-20% incorporation of cysteine.
X ray diffraction studies have shown that neuromelanin has a multi-layer (graphite-like) three dimensional structure similar to synthetic and naturally occurring melanins, but, these layers are stacked much higher in neuromelanin than in any other synthetic and naturally occurring melanins.
Neuromelanin was identified as a genuine melanin with a strong chelating ability for iron and an afinity for compounds such as lipids, pesticides, and MPP+. It plays a protective role by inactivating the iron ions that induce oxidative stress. When free neuronal iron increases to the point where neuromelanin becomes saturated and it starts to catalyse the production of free radicals, neuromelanin would become cytotoxic. Because hydrogen peroxide can degrade neuromelanin, the pigmented neurones could loose this putatively protective agent. The consequence is a release of iron and other cytotoxic metals or compounds from neuromelanin that accelerates neuronal death, as in Parkinson’s disease. The most consistent pathological finding in Parkinson’s disease is degeneration of the melanin-containing cells in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra. The more profound degree of hypomelanization found in the right substantia nigra explains the left (side of body) predominance of parkinson symptomsism.
Copper oxidizes catecholamines such as dopamine and therefore propagates neurotoxin formation. The brain may fail to store excess catecholamines, a job normally reserved for neuromelanin, and hence allow free circulation of neurotoxins (Smythies, 2000; Hoffer, 1981; Hoffer, 1973). This might under certain circumstances contribute to synaptic deletion. Abnormalities in this neuromelanin storage pathway may be considered causative factors in schizophrenia or Parkinson's disease. This biochemical theory was the first presented in medical literature by Dr. Abram Hoffer M.D., Ph.D. and Dr. Humphry Osmond M.R.C.P., D.P.M. This theory is called the adrenochrome hypothesis.
The ability of neuromelanin to chelate other redox active metals such as copper, manganese, chromium, and toxic metals including cadmium, mercury, and lead strengthens the hypothesis that neuromelanin is a high capacity storage trapping system for metal ions and prevent s neuronal damage.
The afinity of neuromelanin for a variety of inorganic and organic toxins is consistent with the protective function for neuromelanin.

SUNBATHING AND HEALTH

Celsus, Pliny the younger, Galen, and Cicero, are among the Roman writers who describe the use of the sun-bath. "Sol est remediorum maximum"--the sun is the best remedy--declared Pliny.
The Ancients, as disclosed by Herodotus and Antyllos, knew that "the sun feeds the muscles". The Greeks obviously appreciated the importance of sunlight. Their athletes trained naked out of doors, thus exposing all their muscles to its beneficial effect.
The old German epic poem, the Edda, tells us that Germans used to carry their sick, in the springtime to the sunny mountain slopes, in order to expose them to the sunshine. Certain Germanic tribes placed their feverish children in the sunlight on the tops of their houses.

At the turn of the century, it was estimated that as many as ninety per cent of children in some of the crowded cities of northern Europe and the northern United States had rickets. This is despite the fact that the value of sunlight and fresh air in treating rickets had been remarked on in 1822. It took an investigative committee of the British Medical Association in 1889 to state clearly that there was a relationship between urban industrialized environments and rickets.

The modern era of sun therapy began with the knowledge that pathogenic bacteria could be destroyed with the use of sunlight. Dr. Neils Flasen successfully used sunlight in the treatment of tuberculosis of the skin, thereby winning the Nobel Prize in 1903. Finsen, Niels Ryberg was a Danish physician, founder of modern phototherapy (the treatment of disease by the influence of light). He developed an ultraviolet treatment for lupus vulgaris, a form of skin tuberculosis, which met with great success.
In 1911, Dr Rollier, a Swiss physician of Leysin, treated 369 cases of tuberculosis by the action of the sun's rays. Of these 284 were healed, 48 improved, on 21 there was no change, and only 4 percent died. The same physician exhibited, in 1912, before the Society of Physicians, at Leysin, many photos, showing how all manner of tuberculosis of the bones, fistulas, etc., has been completely cured by heliotherapy.
Then, the development of antibiotics caused the death of sun therapy.

Dr. Helen Shaw and her research team conducted a melanoma study at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Sydney Melanoma Clinic, Sydney Hospital. The results of the study were published on August 7, 1982 in the British medical journal, called The Lancet. Researches found that the people who had the lowest risk of developing skin cancer were those whose main daily activity was outdoors. It was found that the incidence of malignant melanomas was considerably twice higher in office workers. The incidence of malignant melanoma, has increased 1,800 percent since 1930, and melanoma mortality rose 34 percent between 1973 and 1992, which has been documented by the Skin Cancer Foundation.

The book Sunlight by Zane Kime MD shows the beneficial results of moderate exposure to ultraviolet frequencies. Noted in Dr. Kime's book single exposures of a large area of the body to ultraviolet light were found to dramatically lower elevated blood pressure (up to a 40 mm Hg drop), lowered abnormally high blood sugars as found in diabetics, to decrease cholesterol in the bloodstream, and to increase the white blood cells, particularly the lymphocytes which are largely responsible for the body's ability to resist disease.
Richard Kovac MD shows in his book, Electrotherapy and Light Therapy that overexposure to sunlight may cause varying degrees of sunstroke, heat stroke or sunburns and such symptoms as headache, undue fatigue or irritability. Properly applied on the other hand, sunshine and open air will act as a powerful tonic, increasing general powers of resistance and promoting mental and physical development.
Dr. Holick, one of the world's foremost authorities on vitamin D and a full professor of medicine, dermatology, biophysics and physiology at the Boston University School of Medicine said in an interview: "adequate vitamin D nutrition and sensible sun exposure during childhood not only will maximize the bone health of their children but may decrease their risk of many chronic diseases in life later including type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and common cancers."
Holick has submitted a paper to the Journal of Gastroneurology summarizing the case study of a 61-year-old woman who came to his Vitamin D clinic who was severely vitamin D deficient and showed signs of significant bone decay consistent with osteoporosis.
"It was so severe when she came to my office she couldn't sit down, she was in tears because all her bones ached so much," Holick explained. "So what do you do? Tanning beds to the rescue."
Holick exposed the woman three times a week to tanning bed light, following the recommended exposure schedule for her skin type. The woman's condition improved significantly.
"The bone pain over several months gradually dissolved, and the vitamin D level increased by 700 percent, just by simply being exposed to tanning bed radiation," Holick explained.
Osteoporosis is a greater problem than many people realize. More than 25 million Americans suffer from osteoporosis, 20 million of whom are women.
At the Fourth World Conference on Nutritional Medicine, Dr. William Grant presented the maps showing the distribution of ovarian cancer and multiple sclerosis across US. The maps are showing a strong correlation between the latitude and the incidence of the two diseases, indicating that less UV exposure is correlated with higher incidence of these diseases.
In "The UV Advantage," Holick recommends exposing the hands, face, arms and legs to the sun for five to 15 minutes a day a few days a week, which he says would be enough to generate that amount without increasing the risk for skin cancer. Many people are not getting even that amount of sun exposure on a regular basis, Holick and others say.
Professor Holick believes his research could explain why people living in colder, northern climates who get less vitamin D from the sun have a higher risk of dying from colon, breast and prostate cancers.
He said more people than might be expected were vitamin D deficient. In 1998, Holick published a paper in the medical journal The Lancet showing that 41 percent of his medical students and 41 percent of his hospital patients at Massachusetts General Hospital were vitamin D deficient. In Boston, he estimated 40 to 50% of adults over 50 were vitamin D deficient.
Professor Holick's team has isolated a key enzyme, or body chemical, which is involved in the processing of vitamin D. It was found in the colon. He said if the body did not take in enough vitamin D then the enzyme would not be activated and the body would not be able to turn the vitamin into a form it could use.
The active form of vitamin D prevents colon cells from proliferating and prompts them to change into more mature cells which are less capable of becoming cancerous.
The Boston researchers have found the same process occurs in breast, skin and prostate cells.
Professor Holick said: "The most beneficial effect of exposure to sunlight is vitamin D protection.
Dr William Grant, an independent researcher from Virginia, has examined the difference in cancer rates dependent on where people live. Using data from the Atlas of Cancer Mortality, he found death rates for breast, colon and ovarian cancers in Boston and New England were almost twice as high as they were in the southwest from 1950 to 1994. Based on his US findings, he estimates a quarter of breast cancer deaths in the UK are as a result of vitamin D deficiency.
Because of his book "The UV Advantage", launched in April 2004, the Dermatology Department Chairwoman Dr. Barbara Gilchrest asked Holick for his resignation because of disagreements with his findings. After being with the department for more than a decade and a friend of Gilchrest's for more than 20 years, during which the two published, worked on and discussed research together, Holick said Gilchrest's response was not one he expected. The Boston Globe reported that Gilchrest asked for his resignation partially because of ties he had with the tanning industry. Gilchrest was not available for comment, but Dr. Boni Elewski, president of the American Academy of Dermatology, said in a statement that UV exposure poses medical dangers and that "any group, organization or individual that disseminates information encouraging exposure to UV radiation, whether natural or artificial, is doing a disservice to the public."

When sunlight hits the skin, it stimulates the topmost layer of living cells, the keratinocytes. These are the cells which produce the keratin, the hard outer layer of dead skin that protects us from germs and injuries. It was always thought that they had no other function. But new evidence has proved that when they are triggered by ultraviolet light, keratinocytes produce a chemical called interleukin-1. IL-1 has a simple but potent effect: it causes white cells, and T-cells in particular, to multiply in number. This explains the observation that gamma globulins (the proteins in the blood which contain antibodies) are increased for a month after exposure to ultraviolet light.
Several studies have shown that exposure to natural sunlight increases the number of the white blood cells in the body. The main white blood cell increased the most is the lymphocyte. It is the lymphocyte that plays the leading role in defending the body in an invasion by bacteria and foreign organisms. Because the lymphocytes increase in number after a sunlight exposure, their products of defense, the antibodies like gamma globulins, also increase in the blood. This increase of lymphocytes and gamma globulins greatly increase a person's ability to fight infections. The lymphocyte is also capable of producing a substance called interferon. This substance has the ability to stop the reproduction of viruses.
A very interesting substance found in almost all cells including lymphocytes is called Cyclic Adenosine Monophosphate (CAMP). If high levels of CAMP build up in the lymphocytes, they will be unable to function properly and will not be able to fight cancer cells. This substance is increased in the body under stress and also when such foods as coffee, tea, and chocolate are used in the diet, among other things. These substances block the natural elimination of CAMP that would normally take place.

The animals given sunlight treatments eliminated toxic chemicals of some types 10-20 times as fast as the animals not receiving the sunlight treatments! Lead was removed from the body twice as fast as from those animals receiving sunlight exposure as from those that did not! The ultraviolet light in sunlight seemed to increase the enzymes that metabolize toxic chemicals and help to remove them.
Russians' experiments showed that animals exposed to the correct doses of sunlight were capable of clearing a wide range of toxins out of their system considerably quicker than animals reared away from the sun. The toxins that they studied included quartz and coal dusts, toxic minerals such as lead, cadmium and mercury, liver poisons such as carbon tetrachloride, and the neurotoxins which these days are so heavily used worldwide as pesticides. They found that sunlight speeded up the clearance of toxins from the body twice to as much as twenty times. The best effect was obtained when sunlight exposure had started some time before exposure to the toxin. (Gabovich, R.D., et al., "Effect of Ultraviolet Radiation on Tolerance of the Organism to Chemical Substances", Vestn Akad Med Nauk SSSR: 3; 26-28, 1975)
Nowadays, some Russian miners are required to have a treatment with ultraviolet light every day when they leave the coal-face. (Dantsig, M., Effect and Use of Ultraviolet Radiation, (Ultrafioletovoye Iziucheniya), Meditsina Publishing House, Moscow, 1966)

Sunlight not only aids in moving the poisonous materials out of the body, but it also has a wonderful effect on the trace minerals needed by the organism. Sunlight's effects upon copper, molybdenum, manganese, nickel, and other important trace minerals have been studied. Following multiple exposures to sunlight, copper levels in the liver increased to almost half while tripling in the blood. Copper also increases by about 100% in the bones, heart, skeletal muscles, and other tissues beneficially. Therefore, we can deduce from this that sunlight can help us to metabolize and utilize the trace minerals that are
necessary in our bodies.

When a group of generally unfit students at the University of Illinois was treated with ultraviolet light as well as physical education classes, their pulse rate after exercise came down by more than ten points on average. The students who did the same exercise but did not receive the UV light only had a three point improvement. The experimental group also found that their recovery time after exercise went down by thirty per cent, and their overall muscular fitness improved by half as much again as did that of the control group. In the cardiovascular fitness tests, the experimental group improved by almost 20 per cent, compared to a minute 1.5 per cent improvement in the control group. Cardiovascular fitness, in this case, referred to a combined measure of a number of different parameters, such as resting pulse, rise of pulse after exertion, blood pressure lying and standing, rise in blood pressure after exertion, and time for pulse rate to return to normal after exertion. The students also reported an increase in their interest and enthusiasm for class work, and those receiving ultraviolet developed only half the number of colds that the control group suffered. (Allen, R.M., and Cureton, T.K., "Effect of Ultraviolet Radiation on Physical Fitness", Arch Phys Med: 26; 641-644,1945)
The muscles underlying an area exposed directly to sunlight also show some local effects. There is an increase in the amount of blood flowing through the muscles, as the blood vessels relax, together with a measurable rise in the temperature of the muscle. At the same time the work capacity and endurance of the muscle goes up. After a single dose of UV, the effect lasts for at least five days. (Levy, M., "Der Einfluss Ultravioletter Strahlen auf die inneren Organe des Mans". Strablentherapie: 9; 618-623, 1919)
After sunbathing, lactic acid, the by-product of muscle metabolism that causes soreness and stiffness after strenuous exercise, is significantly reduced. Sunbathing also increases the ability of the lungs to absorb more vital oxygen, as well as the blood's capacity to carry and deliver it. Oxygen deficiency has been readily linked to a host of illnesses and discomforts ranging from chronic fatigue to cancer.

Twenty-five years ago Dr John Ott investigated the background to a report that children at a school in Illinois had five times the national rate of leukemia. He found that the schoolhouse was a plain, modern building with very large windows in every room, and all the pupils who developed leukemia had been in two particular classrooms. In these two rooms the teachers always kept the large curtains completely drawn across the windows to reduce glare and distraction, and to keep the children's attention on schoolwork. Several years later the two teachers in question left the school, and their replacements kept the classroom curtains open all the time. The lights were also replaced with cool white fluorescent ones, and of course needed to be used less. From then on there was not a single case of leukemia in the school for as long as Dr Ott followed it up. (Ott, John, Health and Light, Pocket Books, New York, 1973)
Laboratory studies have found that there are receptor sites for vitamin D on cancer cells that appears capable of converting human leukemia cells back into normal cells - at least in the test tube.
A Russian study found that vitamin D produces a thirty percent improvement in body's conservation of proteins. (Dantsig, M., Effect and Use of Ultraviolet Radiation (Ultrafioletovoye Izlucheniya), Meditsina Publishing House, Moscow, 1966)

If you’re going to be outside in the sun, make sure you take your essential fatty acids (vitamin F). These include flax seed oil, primrose oil, borage oil, etc. The following quote is from a Standard Process Company bulletin:
"The ultraviolet rays from the sun convert skin oil to vitamin D. Too much D is called hyper-vitaminosis D. Actually, it is not too much D but a deficiency of F, vitamin D’s antagonist. D picks up calcium from the stomach and puts it into the blood. F, the essential fatty acids, take it from the blood and puts it into the tissues. Suppose you get D and no F. Your blood calcium level will increase at the expense of the tissue calcium level, because D not only picks up calcium from the stomach, in a deficiency of F. It brings calcium from the tissues back into the blood. That’s why farmers and other people who are in the sun a lot get thick skin if they don’t eat enough F, which is primarily in oils. They get sunstroke. Sunstroke involves high blood calcium levels with low tissue calcium levels."
Vitamin D affects also the kidney: it causes a greater proportion of calcium (and of course of magnesium too) to be recycled back into the bloodstream rather than passed out in the urine. So not only do we absorb more of it; we also waste less.

The ratio of helper to suppressor cells was fifty per cent higher in osteoporotic patients. They then gave these patients vitamin D for two months, and found that this brought down the T-helper/suppressor ratio in every case to around the normal. In people of the same age without osteoporosis, who had a normal T-helper/T-suppressor ratio to start with, vitamin D does not alter this. (Takuo Fujita. et al., 'T-lymphocyte subsets in Osteoporosis', J. Mineral Electr. Metab.: 10; 375-378,1984)

Both cholesterol, which is needed to make the sex hormones, and vitamin D are derived from the same substance in the body - a chemical called squalene, which is found in the skin. There is a new theory that in the presence of sunlight, this squalene is converted to vitamin D but in its absence, it is converted to cholesterol.
Exposing human skin to sunlight for a couple of hours lowers the level of cholesterol in the skin by at least a half. The effect is less in Negro skin, suggesting that it is the ultraviolet, which melanin pigmentation filters out, that is causing the effect. (Rauschkolb, E.W., et al., "Effect of Ultraviolet Light on Skin Cholesterol", J. Invest Derm: 49; 632-636, 1971)
It is also known that sunlight lowers the level of cholesterol in the blood stream in humans by 9 or 10 per cent. People with low or normal cholesterol are much less likely to see a significant drop than those with a raised cholesterol. (Altschul, R., "Ultraviolet Irradiation and Cholesterol Metabolism", Arch Phys Med: 36; 394-398, 1955)
Doctors in Russia have been using sunlight and ultraviolet light therapy on patients with arteriosclerosis. They have found that as well as improving heart function, the blood supply to the brain can be improved, even in patients with arteriosclerosis of the brain. A study published in 1966 on 150 patients reported that the mental functioning of cerebral arteriosclerosis sufferers was improved greatly by regular sunlight baths. (Mikhailov, V.A., "Influence of Graduated Sunlight Baths on Patients with Coronary Atherosclerosis", Soviet Med: 29; 76-79, 1966)

Dr. Bruce Armstrong of the University of Sydney in Australia said the impact can occur far from the patches of skin where sunlight hits. The more sunlight people receive, the less likely they are to get non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He looked at 1,398 people and found that those who got the most sun had a one-third lower risk than those who got the least. (Hughes AM, Armstrong BK, Vajdic CM, Turner J, Grulich AE, Fritschi L, Milliken S, Kaldor J, Benke G, Kricker A. Sun exposure may
protect against non-Hodgkin lymphoma: a case-control study. Int J Cancer 2004;112:865-71.)

A report from the University of Sydney on non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), was published in December 2004. It is the first epidemiological study to examine the association between sunlight and NHL using direct measurements of sun exposure in individual subjects. The study, which reviews sun exposure over a time span of six decades, compares 704 Australian adults (between the ages of 20 and 74) who had a confirmed diagnosis of NHL, to 694 control subjects without NHL. The control subjects were randomly selected and then matched to the NHL patients by age, sex and place of residence. A questionnaire and telephone interview were used to determine the number of hours spent outdoors on working and nonworking days and vacations.
Contrary to expectations, the risk of NHL fell with increasing hours of sun exposure. The chance of getting NHL was 35 percent less in that portion of the study population that had the most sun exposure compared to the portion that had the least. The impact was even greater when the scientists looked at sun exposure on non-working days. People who got a lot of sun exposure on weekends and holidays had less than half the incidence of NHL compared to those who stayed indoors on their days off. It was a remarkable difference.
"Our results provide strong statistical evidence for an inverse association between sun exposure and NHL," Prof. Anne Kricker and her School of Public Health coauthors wrote in the International Journal of Cancer (Hughes 2004). Since sun exposure produces vitamin D in the skin, these findings suggest that this essential vitamin may also protect against some deadly forms of cancer, including lymphoma. The authors say that it makes "UV-mediated synthesis of vitamin D a plausible mechanism whereby sun exposure might protect against NHL." (Reuters. Sunshine may ward off lymphoma. Dec. 3, 2004)

Dr. William Hrushesky, an authority on how disease patterns fluctuate over time, looked at the results of more than 900,000 papilloma tests done in southern Holland between 1983 and 1998.
August is consistently the sunniest month in southern Holland, and the screening tests picked up twice as much evidence of papilloma virus infection then as in the winter. The virus fell off sharply in September. “Sexual intercourse did not appear to explain most of the variance,” he said. Hrushesky theorizes that even though women are exposed to papilloma at roughly the same level year round, the extra sunlight weakens their defenses against it in the summer.
He noted that sun can dampen the body’s production of antibodies and the activation of protective T cells, the main branches of the natural defenses against infection. Other research has suggested a connection between sunlight and susceptibility to herpes and adenovirus, among other things.

SUNLIGHT DEPRIVATION

In his 1797 book, The Art Of Prolonging Life, Christopher Hufeland, a German physician, commented on the devitalized state of people held prisoner in dungeons for long periods of time. He suggested their sorry state of health was not due to poor diet and inactivity, but to the lack of sunlight in their cells.

A study, conducted by Dr. John Ott, revealed that mice living under fluorescent lighting live an average of 7.5 months, whereas those living under natural unfiltered daylight were much healthier and lived an average of 16.1 months.

In 1987, the Wall Street Journal reported that chickens raised under full-spectrum lighting lived twice as long, laid more eggs, and were less aggressive than chickens raised under fluorescent lighting. The chickens raised under the full-spectrum lights appeared to be more effective in metabolizing and utilizing cholesterol. The eggs they produced were 25% less in cholesterol than the standard eggs. In addition, the eggs were larger and with stronger shells.

In the United States, researchers found that the average levels throughout the year for people living in Palm Beach, in sunny Florida, were twice those of people living in Seattle or Boston, a thousand miles to the north. Moreover, for both these cities, the average level in February, when vitamin D was at its lowest, was higher in men who worked outdoors than the level in August in people who worked indoors. In other words, indoor workers spend their whole lives with lower vitamin D levels than outdoor workers. (Lawson, D.E.M., et al., "The Relative Contributions of Diet and Sunlight to Vitamin D State in the Elderly", British Medical Journal: ii; 303, 1979)

100% of African Americans, East Africans, Hispanics, and American Indians in their Minnesota-based study had deficient levels of vitamin D; overall, 93% of the 150 children and adults in the study, which included 6 broad categories of ethnic groups, were vitamin D-deficient. 100% of patients younger than 30 years and older than 60 years had vitamin D deficiencies, with the younger group having significantly lower levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. The association between nonspecific musculoskeletal pain and vitamin D deficiency was suspected because of a higher prevalence of these symptoms during winter than summer. The study patients ranged in age from 10 to 65 years, and all had symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. Of the more than 90% of patients who were medically evaluated for persistent musculoskeletal pain 1 year or more before screening, none had been tested previously for vitamin D deficiency. (Mayo Clinic Proceedings on 1/2/2004, by Holick, Michael F.)

Nesby-O'Dell reported that 42% of African American women in the United States aged 15 to 49 years were vitamin D-deficient; Tangpricha reported that 32% of healthy young white men and women in Boston aged 18 to 29 years were vitamin D-deficient at the end of winter in 2003. It is now recognized that mothers with darker skin, along with their newborns and young children who receive their total nutrition from breastfeeding, are at high risk of vitamin D deficiency. In Boston, 76% of 50 mother-infant pairs were found to be vitamin D-deficient, as were 69% of infants in the New York area (J. M. Lee, MD, B. L. Phillip, MD, D. S. Hirsch, MD, M. F. Holick, MD, unpublished data, 2003). Sullivan reported that 48% of girls in Maine aged 9 to 11 years were vitamin D-deficient at the end of winter in 2003.

Vitamin D deficiency decreases biosynthesis and release of insulin. Glucose intolerance has been inversely associated with the concentration of vitamin D in the blood. Thus, vitamin D may protect against both Type I and Type II diabetes.
The risk of senile cataract is reduced in persons with optimal levels of D and carotenoids.
Low vitamin D is associated with several autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis, Sjogren's Syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroiditis and Crohn's disease.
D deficiency has been mistaken for fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue or peripheral neuropathy.
Infertility is associated with low vitamin D. Vitamin D supports production of estrogen in men and women. PMS has been completely reversed by addition of calcium, magnesium and vitamin D. Menstrual migraine is associated with low levels of vitamin D and calcium.
Breast, prostate, skin and colon cancer have a strong association with low levels of D and lack of sunlight. All men will develop prostate cancer if they live long enough and lack of vitamin D may be the most likely cause. - Cancer Causes & Control 9: 6 (DEC 1998):567-582
Studies from Harvard School of public Health show that men who drink more than four glasses of milk a day have low blood levels of vitamin D and are at increased risk for prostate cancer. Calcium uses up vitamin D and not enough vitamin D is added to milk to cover the extra calcium used.
Men who live in colder climates have a higher incidence of prostate cancer because they get less sunlight. This study shows that prostate cancer is associated with not exposing skin to sunlight and not going on holidays to beach resorts. (Lancet August 25, 2001)
Vitamin D inhibits the growth of new, undesirable blood vessels that tumors require for nutrient supply and growth. Laboratory tests have shown vitamin D to be a potent angiogenesis inhibitor. (Shokravi MT, et al. Vitamin D inhibits angiogenesis in transgenic murine retinoblastoma. Inv Oph 1995;36:83-7.)

One researcher estimates moderate sunning would prevent 30,000 annual cancer deaths in the United States. (Ansleigh HG. Beneficial effects of sun exposure on cancer mortality. Prev Med 1993;22:132-40.)

Lack of vitamin D is associated with 17 different cancers. 38% of Americans will get Cancer. At the turn of the century it was 3%.
The pH of saliva offers a window through which you can see the overall pH balance in your body.
Most children have a saliva pH of 7.5. Over half of adults have a pH of 6.5 or lower, reflecting the calcium deficiency of aging and lifestyle defects. "Cancer patients have a saliva pH of 4.5, especially when terminal." (The Calcium Factor: The Scientific Secret of Health and Youth, by Robert R. Barefoot and Carl J. Reich, M.D., Gilliland Printing Inc., Arkansas City, Kansas, 1996.)
Cancer cannot exist in an alkaline environment. All forms of arthritis are associated with excess acidity. Acid in the body dissolves both teeth and bones. Whatever health situation you are faced with, you can monitor your progress toward a proper acid/alkaline balance by testing your saliva pH.
You can use the vitamin D to help push the pH up. With pH 5.6 to 6 clinicians have found that adding 1000 IU of vitamin D once or twice a day is beneficial and pH from 5.2 to 5.6 up to 5000 IU of vitamin D is good, while pH below 5.0 up to 50000 IU of vitamin D once or twice a day would be ok as little vitamin D is being absorbed in the acid terrain.

It is estimated that for each 5% of skin surface exposed, approximately 435 IU of Vitamin D can be manufactured. The process requires that the oil on the skin remain intact for awhile after exposure to the sun. For instance, life guards and farmers, who don't go shower immediately after sweating in the sun, have the highest serum Vitamin D levels. Try to keep the oil on your skin for at least several hours after sun exposure.
Typically, the sun exposure of a person in a bathing suit of 1 minimal erythema dose (which causes a slight pinkness to the skin) is equivalent to ingesting 20,000 IU of vitamin D. Thus, exposure of hands, face, and arms or arms and legs to 25% of a minimal erythema dose (about 5-15 minutes between 11 AM and 2 PM in Boston, at 45 degree northern latitude) will provide an adequate amount of vitamin D, for a white person.
When scientists attached light detectors to the wrists and head of volunteers for stretches of a day or more, they found that their subjects were only infrequently exposed to anything over 1000 lux. They appeared to spend most of their time at an average intensity of around 100 lux. Yet this study was conducted in San Diego, which is one of the sunniest places in the continental USA. (Okudaira, N., Kripke, D.F., and Webster, J.B., 'Naturalistic Studies of Human Light Exposure', American Journal of Physiology, 245: R613-R615, 1983)

In 1980, Mrs A. had her periods stopped, and she started putting on weight. She gained three stones in two years. Then she developed pins and needles in her extremities, and had difficulty with walking. She was diagnosed as suffering from multiple sclerosis. When I asked her whether she could think of any events or changes in her lifestyle immediately preceding the start of her symptoms, she at first said no. A month later she told me that it had occurred to her that everything started when she began a new job, working in a modern health center, in an entirely windowless room. She worked there until her symptoms became so bad that she had to stop work.

When miss Y. came to see me she was twenty-two. Since the age of fourteen she had developed symptoms every year, at around Christmas-time, of lack of concentration, difficulty focusing, fuzzy-headedness, fatigue, generally feeling unwell, fluid retention and swelling, constipation, vomiting, purple discoloration of the extremities, a rash, and loss of the ability to taste and smell. These symptoms gradually worsened for two months, and then improved in the spring, clearing up by April. One year she spent a fortnight in the South of France in the autumn, and didn't become ill that winter. After this she found that she felt much better for having a course on a sun bed, but even better for having a holiday in the sun.

Mr B. is a hairdresser; every winter, as well as feeling increasingly fatigued as the months went by, he developed a succession of colds and sore throats. He knew that the chemicals used in hairdressing (which may be the most toxic trade that exists in the 1980s) made his sore throat and all his other symptoms worse. But he also knew that he reacted more to them in winter than in summer. When I saw him in mid-January, he had already booked his week in Lanzarote, and was leaving the next day. 'It's the only thing that keeps me going in the winter,' he said.

Surgery patients in rooms with lots of natural light took less pain medication, and their drug costs ran 21% less than for equally ill patients assigned to darker rooms, a scientist will report. Those in the brighter rooms also had lower stress levels and said they felt less pain the day after surgery and at discharge, says Bruce Rabin, a physician and immunologist at the University of Pittsburgh. Light meters showed that darker rooms at Montefiore University Hospital in Pittsburgh had 46% less natural light than those on the sunny side, says Rabin and co-author Jeffrey Walch. They randomly housed 89 spinal fusion surgery patients on one side or the other.
It's thought to be the first evidence that sunlight can affect the perception of pain.

In a school environment which was almost entirely lit by fluorescent tubes, hyperactivity was a constant and substantial problem. But when the ordinary tubes were replaced with full-spectrum ones, things improved dramatically. These results were recorded by a hidden video camera, and studying the video brings the point home powerfully. Children who before could hardly stay on their seats started to sit down and pay attention. The rate of punishment for misbehavior went down and the work output and learning capacity of the children went up. It was noticeable that the children who were worst to start with improved the most. (Ott, John, Health and Light, Pocket Books, New York, 1973)

John Ott had worn glasses since childhood, and had been spending much of his life indoors under photographic lights. By middle age he was going bald, felt generally run down and suffered from frequent colds and respiratory infections, and had X-ray evidence of arthritis in his hip. This became so severe that he used a walking stick and an old bicycle to get from his house to the shed where the cameras were housed. Having heard that the Florida weather was reputed to be very beneficial to health, and that many people retired there for that reason, he spent a holiday on the beach there, sunbathing and relaxing, but experienced absolutely no benefit. During this time he always protected his eyes with sunglasses, or at least used his own spectacles.
Back in Chicago, and feeling no better, he happened to break his glasses. The spare pair were un-wearable, so he was outside in the sun for several days without spectacles. All of a sudden, he noticed that he didn't seem to need the cane any more, and that his joints were generally much looser and easier. He walked cautiously up and down the drive, and then literally ran upstairs, for the first time in years, to tell his wife.
Deducing that sunlight was the factor, and that it was blocked by glasses, he went back to Florida for one week. During this time he never wore glasses, he tried to avoid driving in cars, and spent as much time as possible sitting out of doors in the shade. By the end of the week his arthritis had definitely improved, and he felt much fitter.
Thirty years later, Dr. Ott is a fit, elderly gentleman who still lives in the town in Florida which he visited for that holiday. He continues his research, uses glasses only for small print, and even has a good head of gray hair.

HEMIN AND CHLOROPHYLL

"Photosynthesis does not mean you need chlorophyll. This concept also we very wrongly understand. Only the plant kingdom needs chlorophyll. Human body can do it with a different medium." (Transcript of a Dec. 01 2002
Lecture by Hira Ratan Manek). Unlike the plants, the blood contains hemin, a crystalline product of hemoglobin.
Hans Fischer, the German biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1930 for research into the constitution of hemin, the red blood pigment, and chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants, showed that there is
a close relationship between hemin and chlorophyll. The only difference is that chlorophyll is bound by an atom of magnesium and hemin is bound by iron.
Chlorophyll in leaves appears green because it uses energy chiefly from the blue and red areas of the spectrum for photosynthesis, but the green light is reflected. Hemoglobin appears red because it absorbs green light, and this provides exactly the right amount of energy to shift a molecule from one structure or state to another.
Experiments have shown that severely anemic rabbits make a rapid return to a normal blood count once chlorophyll is administered. Chlorophyll also removes carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, has anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and wound-healing properties.

ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION

Ultraviolet (UV) is that portion of the electromagnetic spectrum extending from the violet, or short-wavelength, end of the visible light range to the X-ray region.
Up to 50% of daily UV is emmited between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
95 % of UV penetrates water, while 40 % reaches a depth of 50 cm.
Most natural surfaces such as grass, soil and water reflect less than 10% of incident UV. However, fresh snow strongly reflects (80%) UV. Sand also reflects (10-25%) and can significantly increase UV exposure at the beach.
Surprisingly, there is a relatively higher amount of ultraviolet in the skyshine than in direct sunshine. The large amount of ultraviolet in skyshine accounts for the fact that it is possible to get sunburned on a beach on a cloudy day when there is no direct radiation from the sun.
A famous practitioner of sun therapy was Auguste Rollier MD, whose clinic was at 5,000 feet above sea level. Dr. Rollier, wrote a volume titled La Cure de Soleil [The Sunlight Cure]. He knew that the higher the UV dosis, the greater the success of the treatment. Many patients were healed from tuberculosis (and it was noticed that the sun did not effect a cure if the patients wore glasses impenetrable to the healing UV rays). He stated that his patients would get the best results if they received the highest amount of ultraviolet light at this altitude. Ultraviolet intensity increases 4% to 5% every 1000 feet ascended. He apparently substantiated incredible results, which were published in his book La Cure de Soleil / Curing with the Sun.

The energy output of the Sun has its peak at a wavelength of 470 nanometers, but the ozone and the atmosphere are absorbing in different amounts the visible wavelengths, so that the peak luminance on the earth's surface results at 540 nm.
Of the radiation striking the earth, approximately 50% has a visible wavelength of 400 and 700 nanometers. Ultraviolet (100 to 400 nm) frequencies equals 5%, and infrared (over 700 nm) wavelengths are 45% of all radiation reaching earth. UVC are the shortest ultraviolet rays and virtually all of these frequencies are absorbed by our atmosphere and the ozone layer. The remaining UV light that reaches the ground is about 1-10% UVB and 90-99% UVA at midday.
About 95% of the UVB incident on human skin is absorbed, but only 10% to 20% penetrates beyond the epidermis. The amount of UVA dosage for redness in the skin is 600 to 1000 times that of UVB. Although UVB is implicated in much of the connective tissue damage, shorter UVA is probably responsible for the bulk of UVA -induced photodamage.
Ultraviolet-A (near UV) has a wavelength of 315-400 nanometres. Of the ultraviolet that does reach the Earth's surface, almost 99 percent is UVA radiation.
UVA stimulates the immediate tanning response, which occurs during exposure and increases until exposure ends. It occurs in response to both UVA and certain visible wavelengths. No melanin production is involved.

Visible light, when administered following lethal doses of ultraviolet (UVB and UVC), is capable of causing recovery of the cells exposed. This phenomenon, referred to as photorecovery (also called photoreactivation, especially in microorganisms), has led to the discovery of various enzyme systems that are capable of restoring damaged nucleic acids in genes to their normal form.
In 1986 Betsy Sutherland, a researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, finally demonstrated that photo reactivation occurred in human skin. She described its parameters quite clearly: it is light-dependent, being stimulated best by light of wavelength 350 to 400 nanometers (UVA). When such light hits the skin, the process happens very rapidly, clearing most of the dimers out of the tissue within minutes. (Sutherland, B.M., "Photoreactivation and Other Ultraviolet/Visible Light Effects on DNA in Human Skin", Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci: 453; 73-79, 1985)
The remarkable fact is that although UVA stimulates synthesis of DNA, and therefore cell activity and multiplication, it suppresses DNA synthesis during the first hour after exposure. During this hour, the photo reactive enzymes are able to repair most of the damaged DNA. (Pathak, M.A., "Activation of the Melanocyte System by Ultraviolet-Radiation and Cell Transformation", Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci: 453; 328-339, 1985)
Prof. Smith-Sonneborn irradiated one-celled organisms with bactericidal UV-C rays which damaged their DNA and shortened their life span (accelerated their aging process). She then proceeded to re-irradiate the cells, this time using UV-A. The cells repaired themselves by photoreactivation (PR) and the aging process was halted. This alone was sensational news. Prof. Smith-Sonneborn wanted to know next what would happen if she resubjected the cells to UV-A. This second radiation treatment extended the cells’ lifespan by up to 50 % compared to the control group! Cells treated with caffeine (inhibits DNA repair processes) had a drastically reduced life span. (Smith-Sonneborn J., Age-correlated effects of caffeine on non-irradiated and UV-irradiated Paramecium Aurelia , J Gerontol. 1974 May;29(3):256-60. )
When UV-irradiated embryos of the hermaphroditic fish (Rivulus ocellatus marmoratus) were illuminated by photoreactivating light (PRL) from fluorescent lamps, survival at the hatching stage was markedly increased. The maximum recovery to UV damage was shown by embryos that were exposed to PRL for at least 6 h after UV irradiation. The effect of PRL decreased 30 min after UV irradiation and no PR rescue was detected beyond 96 h. Treatment with 2 mM caffeine for 48 h after UV irradiation increased the sensitivity of the embryos in the dark. The above results demonstrate that Rivulus embryos have an efficient PR system and a caffeine-sensitive dark repair capacity. (Park EH, Yi AK., Photoreactivation rescue and dark repair demonstrated in UV-irradiated embryos of the self-fertilizing fish Rivulus ocellatus marmoratus (Teleostei; Aplocheilidae))

Research on various organisms and cell types consistently demonstrated that light alters cell metabolism, causing synthetic cell processes to dominate catabolic ones. In a recent paper, Karu described it this way: 'The primary changes induced by light are followed by a cascade of biochemical reactions in the cell that do not need further light activation.'

During the summer, the intensity of wavelengths below 350 nanometers is four times higher than in winter, and below 300 nanometers there may be no radiation in winter at all. (Thorington, L., "Spectral Irradiance and Temporal Aspects of Natural and Artificial Light", Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci: 453; 28-54,1985)

Ultraviolet-B (mid UV) has a wavelength of 280-315 nanometres. It is responsible for the UV radiation's best-known effects on organisms, including tanning. Tanning is a natural body defense relying on melanin, a chemical pigment in the skin that absorbs ultraviolet radiation and limits its penetration into tissues. UVB accelerates the aging of skin by damaging the collagen fibres under it and is the cause of an occupational disease known as "welder's flash," or "arc eye," which is characterized by photophobia, tears in the eyes, spasm of the eyelids, and eye inflammation.
UV light of around 295 nanometers wavelength (UVB) has the potential to cause damage to DNA and other molecules. Damaged DNA may lead to a cellular mutation - an abnormal cell which can be the start of cancer, or in the next generation of a genetic change or a congenital abnormality.

Ultraviolet-C (far UV) has a wavelength of 200-280 nanometres. Far-ultraviolet radiation is absorbed by nearly all gases and materials and does not reach the Earth's surface. It is less toxic than mid UV because it does not penetrate tissues as deeply.

UV radiation (200-400 nm) is generally considered to be outside the range of visible illumination for mammals. Experiments on hamsters confirm that wavelengths as low as 305 nm are transmitted through the clear ocular media to the retina. Furthermore, low irradiances of broadband (340-405 nm) and monochromatic (360 nm) UV radiation are capable of suppressing high nocturnal levels of pineal melatonin in intact, but not blind, hamsters. These data indicate that the hamster eye and neuroendocrine system are able to detect and respond to near-UV wavelengths.

Serotonin N-acetyltransferase (NAT) is a key regulatory enzyme in melatonin biosynthesis in the pineal gland. Exposure of rats and chicks to UV-A during the 4th or 5th hour of the dark phase of the 12:12 h light-dark (LD) cycle suppressed the night-driven NAT activity in a time-dependent manner, the effects being generally more pronounced in rats than in chicks. The UV-A-evoked suppression of the nocturnal NAT activity was completely restored within 2 h (chicks) or 3 h (rats) in animals which, after irradiation, were returned to darkness.

Solar retinitis (or photoretinitis) is the result of a photochemical injury mechanism following exposure of the retina to shorter wavelengths in the visible spectrum, i.e., violet and blue light, and not due to thermal burn as was previously speculated. UV is not responsible for solar retinitis. The acute effect of excessive UVexposure to the eye, called photokeratitis, is familiar to the public as "welder's flash" or "snow blindness". Photokeratitis is an acute superficial "burn" of the corneal surface (not of the retina!), resulting from short-term exposure to high-intensity UV radiation. The ocular media in front of the retina are transparent in the visible and near infrared range (400 to 1400 nm) but they absorb most UV radiation. A small UV transmission peak occurs around 320 nm in the normal eye, with higher levels of UV-A transmission among young children.
Under certain conditions (lack of antioxidants etc), UV exposure of the eyes can trigger the cataract.
When the sun is overhead at noon, the level of UV exposure is 10 times greater than that at either 3 h before or 3 h after noon.

Researchers at John Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered that sulforaphane, the naturally occurring antioxidant in broccoli and broccoli sprouts, protects the eye from damage caused by the sun's ultraviolet light. This antioxidant found in broccoli is a powerful force in preventing blindness.
In their latest laboratory experiment, the researchers exposed human retina cells, which protect against oxidative stress and free radicals, to various doses of sulforaphane. Then they exposed cells to ultraviolet light -- similar to sunlight -- to produce oxidative damage.
Sulforaphane protected eye cells from damage, reports Xiangqun Gao, a molecular scientist with the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Previous studies from this group of researchers have shown that sulforaphane prevents tumor growth and kills stomach bacteria that lead to ulcers and stomach cancer. In one study, they showed that feeding broccoli sprouts to rats prevented high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke.

UV light activates the synthesis of Vitamin D, which is a prerequisite for absorption of calcium and other minerals. One of vitamin D metabolites, 25-hydroxycholecalciferol, may influence the resting energy state of the muscle and also protein turnover.
UV light can lower blood pressure; can increase efficiency of the heart, can improve EKG readings and blood profiles; can reduce cholesterol; can increase the level of sex hormones (Vita-Lite has a balanced UV, and is used extensively for enhancing the mating and reproduction of indoor pet and animals).

Irradiation by ultraviolet B (UV-B; 280-320 nm) initiates immunosuppression of contact hypersensitivity in mice, by exposure of the dorsal skin or the eyes to a 10 kJ/m2 dose of UV-B radiation. The degree of immunosuppression induced by UV-B eye irradiation was equal to that induced by UV-B skin irradiation. When mice were irradiated with UV-B into the eyes after the optic nerve had been cut, systemic immunosuppression was not induced.

Narrow-band UVB refers to a specific wavelength of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, 311 to 312 nm. This range has proved to be the most beneficial component of natural sunlight for vitilligo and Psoriasis and is promising in the treatment of some other skin conditions including atopic eczema and vitiligo.
Compared with broadband UVB, in the treatment of psoriasis, Narrow band UVB treatment has the following features:
* Exposure times are shorter but of higher intensity.
* The course of treatment is shorter
* It is more likely to clear the psoriasis
* Longer periods of remission occur before the psoriasis reappears

UV BLOOD IRRADIATION

In his 318-page book entitled Into The Light, William C. Douglass, M.D., outlines the tremendous powers of light. He cites two cases, husband and wife, who both had the flu. One treatment completely reversed the system in both patients within two hours.
In the case of serious infections, marked reduction in toxic symptoms is observed in 12 to 48 hours.
Dr. William C. Douglass pointed in his newsletter, The Cutting Edge, Nov. 1987, p. 3:
"It's amazing what you can find by nosing around in the dusty archives of a good medical library. I came across another remarkable therapy that the AMA and drug industry (or whoever is in charge of suppressing non-toxic treatments that work) have shoved down the memory hole."
"Back in 1933, Doctors Hancock and Knott treated a patient dying of septicemia (blood poisoning) with ultraviolet irradiation of the blood.The patient was moribund with a blood stream infection and obviously near death. The patient made a complete and uneventful recovery ." (Northwest Medicine, 33:200, 1934)
"Searching further, I found that in 1928 a similar terminal infection was treated by ultraviolet light to the blood. This patient also made a complete recovery. " (Knott, AM. J. Surg., Aug. 1948, pp. 165-171)
"Finally, in 1940, 110 cases treated with ultraviolet spectral energy were reported. The results were uniformly good. Between 1940 and 1948 many other conditions were successfully treated, including vein inflammation (phlebitis), polio and asthma. Up to the late 40's over 40 thousand treatments were given with ultraviolet blood irradiation."
"And now for the most interesting part. In 1947, Dr. G .P. Miley reported on 79 cases of virus infection. (Rev. Gastroenterol. 15 271-277, 1948) Miley stated that ultraviolet blood irradiation therapy could be relied upon consistently to control an infection of a virus in a safe and efficient manner." (Am. J. Surgery, Aug. 1948, pp. 170) There is a reason to believe that by destroying the viruses in the treated sample of blood, an "autogenous vaccine" is produced that aids in rapid destruction of bloodstream viruses.
Miley, writing in Archives of Physical Therapy, Volume 25, June 1944, reports a case of a patient near death from classic botulism neurotoxin. He was unable to swallow, or see. The patient was treated with photoluminescence and within 48 hours was able both to swallow and see, and was completely clear mentally.
As Miley said, "There is, to my knowledge, no record in medical science or of any other therapy that can produce such an effect on a patient in the last stages of botulism."
Nearly all toxins, such as those excreted from staphylococcus, diphtheria, and tetanus organisms, are also inactivated by UV - as are, remarkably enough, all snake venoms.
The Russians have successfully treated 128 comatose patients who have been poisoned by organophosphate or had psychotropic drug intoxication.
Ultraviolet irradiation typically causes the body to eliminate uric acid more rapidly, suggesting usefulness as a treatment for gout, gouty arthritis, bursitis and other inflammatory conditions of muscles and joints.
Patients with advanced pneumonia, acute gangrenous appendicitis, multiple pelvic abscesses, and peritonitis have made hard to believe reversal of the problems in 24 to 72 hours.
Other effects of UV irradiation of the blood include increased effficiency of oxygen exchange, dilation of coronary arteries, rapid reversal of paralytic ileus (paralyzed gut following surgery), prevention and reversal of thrombophlebitis, restoration of normal autonomic nervous system balance, and dramatic relief in 80 percent of asthma patients. This therapy appeared to increase the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood by 50 per cent.
Researchers also have found that blood sugar is temporarily diminished in diabetic patients by UV irradiation. This is probably due to an increase in insulin sensitivity.
UV blood irradiation, also called photopheresis or extracorporeal photochemotherapy, is an FDA-approved treatment for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (a type of cancer affecting the skin) and its variants as well as for psoriasis. It is also used in clinical trials for treatment of such autoimmune disorders as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma, and graft-versus-host disease, a complication that can occur after stem cell transplants.
The blood, along with an anticoagulant, is collected into the Photopheresis device. The lymphocytes are separated by centrifugation to create a concentrated layer of white blood cells. The lymphocyte layer is exposed to UVA and then returned to the patient. Red cells and plasma are returned to the patient between each cycle.

Doctors treating a range of infections from viral pneumonia, through mumps to acute poliomyelitis, found that the illness cleared within days, and the abnormal temperature, blood cell counts and physical signs were corrected. (Schwartz, S.O., et al., "Ultraviolet Irradiation of Blood in Man", Journal of the American Medical Association, 149 No 13; 1180-1184, 1952)
Some alternative practitioners offer a type of ultra violet blood irradiation (without 8-MOP or Methoxsalen, that sensitizes cells to light) for such purposes as eliminating toxins and viruses, inhibiting growth of bacteria, enhancing immunity, and increasing oxygenation of the blood.

UV light can protect against the development of coronary artery disease and the other forms of hardening of the arteries in the first place. (Altschul, R., "Inhibition of Experimental Cholesterol Arteriosclerosis by Ultraviolet Irradiation", New England Journal of Medicine: 249; 96-100, 1953)
A. Levin and his associates studied the effect of UV blood irradiation on blockage of the arteries of the legs, a common problem in diabetics and heavy smokers. They reported positive results in eight of 11 cases with significant relief of pain, less dependence on pain killers, better sleep, better appetites and quick healing of ulcerations caused by poor circulation.
Dutkevich and associates reported that 10.3 percent of surgical cases in their series developed some degree of thrombophlebitis or thrombosis following surgery if not treated with UV light therapy. Not a single case developed these venous complications if they had been treated with UV light therapy prior to or after surgery.

Researchers also have found that blood sugar is temporarily diminished in diabetic patients by UV irradiation. This is probably due to an increase in insulin sensitivity.

UV, PROSTAGLANDINS, GLAUCOMA AND THE IRIS

Almost all mammalian cells, except red blood cells, produce prostaglandins, which like hormones, have profound physiological effects at extremely low concentrations. Mechanical deformation of cells produces prostaglandin.
Skin explants responded to UV irradiation (120 mJ/cm2) with a fivefold increase in synthesis of prostaglandins E2, F2 alpha and 6-keto PGF1 alpha. Erythema in vivo is associated with increased quantities of prostaglandins 3-6 h after irradiation. In irradiated explants, PG synthesis was stimulated threefold by 3 microM histamine. Unirradiated explants' PG synthesis was unaffected by histamine. These studies demonstrate that endogenous histamine stimulates PG synthesis in human skin after UV injury by potentiation of histamine-induced prostaglandin release. (Enhanced prostaglandin synthesis after ultraviolet injury is mediated by endogenous histamine stimulation. A mechanism for irradiation erythema, A P Pentland, M Mahoney, S C Jacobs, and M J Holtzman, Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 63110)

Subjects treated for glaucoma, with Travatan (PGF 2 derivative), had the lowest average IOP (intraocular pressure) and the lowest variance as compared with the other treatment groups. (Nordmann JP, LePen C, Berdeaux G. Estimating the long-term visual field consequences of average daily intraocular pressure and variance. Clin Drug Invest 23(7):431-438. 2003.)
When applied to the eyes of a rabbit, a 1 µg dose of PGE3 decreases intraocular pressure from 21 mmHg to about 17 mmHg. (Kulkarni, P.S., Srinivasan, B.D. Prostaglandins E3 and D3 lower intraocular pressure. Invest Ophthamol Vis Sci 26, 1178-1182 (1985).)

PGE 2

Arachidonic acid (high in modern diet)

latanoprost (Xalatan), travoprost (Travatan), bimatoprost (Lumigan) and unoprostone isopropyl (Rescula)

Stimulates hyperalgesic response (sensitize to pain)
Renal and bronchial vasodilation
Inhibitor of platelet aggregation
Stimulates uterine smooth muscle relaxation
Cytoprotection of GI epithelial cells against acid
Reduces gastric acid secretion
Elevates thermoregulatory set-point in anterior hypothalamus (fever)
Lowers IOP
Promotes inflammation

PGE 3

Omega-3: EPA (Eicosapentaenoic acid)

-

Lower IOP without inflammatory effects (rabbit)

PGF 2

-

Forskolin (Coleus forskohlii)

Stimulates breakdown of corpus luteum (luteolysis) (Animals)
Stimulates uterine smooth muscle contraction
Bronchial constrictor
Lower IOP
Inhibits inflammation

Darkening of the iris colour is a well known side effect of both naturally occurring prostaglandins and prostaglandin analogues, such as isopropyl unoprostone1 and latanoprost. Latanoprost seems to increase the number of melanocytes synthesising melanin and the melanin content of these cells. (Lindquist NG, Larsson BS, Stjernschantz J. Increased pigmentation of irideal melanocytes in primates induced by a prostaglandin analogue. Exp Eye Res 1999;69:431–6)
Some investigators have speculated that prostaglandins may actually restore the natural colour of the iris, because the darkening occurs, in their opinion, more often in the peripheral, lighter part of the mixed colour irides, thus producing a more uniform iris colour. (Camras CB. The United States latanoprost study group. Comparison of latanoprost and timolol in patients with ocular hypertension and glaucoma. A six-month, masked, multicenter trial in the United States. Ophthalmology 1996;103:138–47.)
The eye color change is apparently irreversible and could represent the latanoprost related activation of melanogenesis in some superficial melanocytes, which increase their melanin content and thus become darker, resembling pigmented dots.

Iridology, the science of diagnosing illness by examining the eye, dates to the nineteenth century, when an eleven-year-old boy found an owl with a broken leg. The Hungarian prodigy noted that a black mark appeared in the owl’s eye that changed and disappeared as the leg healed.
Iridology is based on the theory that the nervous system culminates in the surface of the eyes, so by studying the shape, colour and brightness of the iris, alongside the predetermined eye-colour type, an iridologist can make a diagnosis on the state of a person’s health.
The black marks from the iris are absorbing more radiation from the sunlight, they are a kind of entry points for the sunlight’s energy. According to their location on the iris, these points are activating the corresponding organs.
In the 1950s, an American naturopath, Dr. Bernard Jensen, mapped out the iris into six zones or rings. The six rings all relate to a system within the body. The innermost ring is said to correspond to the stomach; the second to the small and large intestine; the third to the blood; the fourth is connected to the organs and the hormone-producing endocrine system and the fifth is the muscular-skeletal system. The sixth and outermost ring is connected to the skin and the organs of elimination.

UV BIOPHOTONS

Biophotons were discovered in 1923 by Russian medical scientist Professor Alexander G. Gurwitsch, who named them "mitogenetic rays". He found that he could stimulate the growth of cells, and their division, by exposing them to radiations from an already growing organism. In his first experiments, be used onion roots. These were arranged in glass tubes enveloping most of their length, so that only the parts needed in the experiment were exposed. On the side of the detector root nearest to the transmitter root, more cells divided, and there was an increase in size and chemical activity.
His first assumption, or hypothesis, was that this was due to a chemical substance released from the transmitter root. So he inserted a quartz sheet between the two roots to block any such mediators, and found that the effect was not abolished. When a sheet of glass was interposed instead, however, there was no response by the detector root. Since the effect could pass through quartz, it had to be an electromagnetic wave; but if it could not pass through glass, then it was almost certainly in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. (Gurwitsch, A., "Die Natur des Specifischen Erregurs der Zeliteilung", Roux, Archiv: 100; 11, 1923)

Dr. Vlail Kaznacheyev was Director of the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Novosibirsk. For 20 years he has been directing highly unusual experiments with twin cell cultures. In the experiments, two sealed containers were placed side by side, with a thin optical window separating them.
A tissue was separated into two identical samples, and one sample placed in each of the two halves of the apparatus. The cells in one sample (on one side of the glass) were then subjected to a deleterious agent - a selected virus, bacterial infection, chemical poison, nuclear radiation, deadly ultraviolet radiation, etc - that led to disease and death of the exposed/infected cell culture sample. If the thin optical window was made of ordinary window glass, the uninfected cells on the other side of the window were undamaged and remained healthy. However, if the thin optical window was made of quartz, some time (usually about 12 hours) after the disease appeared in the infected sample, the same features of disease appeared in the uninfected sample. This startling "infection by optical coupling" occurred in a substantial percentage of the tests (70 to 80 percent). Further, if the originally uninfected cells were in optical contact with the infected cells for 18-20 hours or so, and then were correspondingly exposed (optically coupled) to another uninfected cell sample, symptoms of the infection appeared in this third sample in an appreciable amount (20 to 30 percent). Use of the detector as a new inductor in a successive state reduces the effect by 20-30%. Three or four such stages is sufficient to eliminate the effect.
The cellular disease induction effect was called the mirror cytopathogenic effect (CPE for short) by the Kaznacheyev group. Mirror CPE appeared only when the quartz or mica window was no thicker than 0.8 mm. A. F. Kirkin also duplicated the experiments using a thin plexiglas window.
There are conditions which enhance the effect, and others which inhibit or degrade it. Both cultures must be maintained in complete darkness throughout the experiment. Increasing the temperature to 38.5 degrees centigrade also enhances the effect (from 37% to 90% for example). A necessary condition for the success of the experiment is the rotation of the holder with its two optically-coupled samples at a rate of about 24-25 revolutions per hour. Optical contact between the inductor and detector cells for a minimum of 4-6 hours is necessary, after which the cell cultures can be separated. A longer contact time is necessary for complete development of the irreversible effect.
In more than 15,000 experiments, monthly variations and daily variations were noted. Kaznacheyev further discovered that the Sun's activity and the Earth's magnetic field greatly affected the results of his experiments. Large flashes on the sun seem to inhibit the effect. In a season of active sunspots, the mirror CPE effect becomes highly unstable. Under active sun conditions, the effect varies from 90-100% on some days to complete absence on others. Negative results appear more often in winter.
Irradiation of the detector-culture with a low dose of UV prior to its optical contact enhances the effect, increasing it to certainty (99-100% ). (lieutenant colonel Thomas E. Bearden, PhD, AIDS Biological Warfare, 1988, Chapter 5 Extraordinary Biology)

The next key finding was that bioradiation could be triggered off by exposing cells to a source of ultraviolet light. When a graphite-arc lamp, which was the only source of UV available in laboratories at that time, was directed at a preparation of cells, they not only produced their own bioradiation in response, but an increase in metabolic activity followed as well. The implication is clear: UV from natural, sunlight sources must be equally able to stimulate our metabolisms.
After UVB-irradiation of cells an increase of biophotonic emission was observed in postmitotic fibroblasts. The ultraweak photon emission of a culture medium was significantly higher at 37°C than at 25°C and after UVB-irradiation this difference was even more pronounced. While with cells in the medium no temperature dependence could be determined in unirradiated samples, after UVB-irradiation of cells an increase of biophotonic emission was observed in postmitotic fibroblasts. (Temperature dependence of ultraweak photon emission in fibroblastic differentiation after irradiation with artificial sunlight, Hugo J Niggli, Indian Journal of Experimental Biology Vol. 41, May 2003, pp. 424-430 )

Lipoxygenase (LOX) and peroxidase (POD) reactions, which are involved in the production of reactive oxygen and radical species, are shown to be associated with ultraweak photon emission in plant defense mechanisms. These enzyme reactions induced high-level ultraweak photon emission in an in vitro reaction system. The application of LOX to sweet potato slices caused photon emission directly in plants. LOX substrate promoted photon emission in chitosan-treated sweet potato, and LOX inhibitor markedly suppressed this emission. Therefore, a LOX-related pathway, including LOX and other downstream reactions, is principally associated with photon emission in plant defense mechanisms. (Endogenous enzyme reactions closely related to photon emission in the plant defense response, Youichi Aoshima, Kimihiko Kato & Takahiro Makino, Indian Journal of Experimental Biology Vol. 41, May 2003, pp. 500-510 )

Research projects in China have shown that application of the biofield affects lithium fluoride thermoluminesence detectors, polarized light beams, Van de Graff generators, and silicone crystal plates.

The secondary radiation (the energy put out by an organism or solution in response to an input of ultraviolet energy) became stronger the more dilute the solution. Thus a 0.02 per cent solution of nucleic acid produced its peak effect in one fifth of the time taken by a 1 per cent solution. Similar results were found with suspensions of bacteria. (Miley, G., 'The Knott Technique of UV blood irradiation', New York Journal of Medicine: 42; 38-46, 1942)

When six quartz test tubes containing bacteria were set side by side, and the first one was irradiated with UV, there was a secondary radiation emitted from the other end of the row, which was twenty seven times greater than the input UV. (Ronge, H.E., 'Ultraviolet Irradiation with Artificial Illumination: A Technical, Physiological and Hygienic Study', Acta Pbysiol Scand: 15 (supp. 49); 163-171, 1948)

The degree of radiation appeared to depend on what was going on in the organism or tissue. Cells which were in the process of growing and dividing radiated most, and cells in a state of exhaustion radiated least. In fact, the radiation detected from human blood was highest when the individual's energy level was high, and at its lowest after a day's hard work.
Protti in Milan, and other researchers throughout Europe, found in the thirties that the radiation detectable from blood increased after food, and decreased with fatigue. After a day's work or several hours physical exertion it was down to almost nothing. in a couple of hours it had returned nearly to normal. Inhaling oxygen had a boosting effect on bioradiation, but only for about one hour. The effect of ultraviolet exposure, on the other hand, lasted for hours or even days. (Wassitieff, L.L., "De I' influence de Travail Cerebral sur la Radiation Mitogenetique de sang", Arch. Sciences Biol: 35; 104,1934)
Blood from anybody with a serious illness did not radiate well, and the most dramatic difference was found with cancer patients. The lack of any radiation from the blood of people with cancer was so striking that the researchers came to regard this as a reliable test for cancer, and many cases of previously undiagnosed cancer are reported to have been detected by this method. When they took samples from the malignant growth itself, on the other hand, they found that it radiated very strongly.

Red blood cells are peculiarly sensitive to light and will respond to it by emitting biophotons that in turn stimulate other red blood cells to do likewise. Bacteria and viruses are more vulnerable to biophotonic emissions than are somatic cells.
Two glasses with fresh pig blood were put next to each other. In one glass a causative agent was trickled; the blood reacted by building antibodies. Then, the blood in the other glass also builded antibodies, without the presence of the causative agent! When a light-absorbing wall separated the two glasses, the effect did not occur.
The UVB irradiation of a small fraction (some 5 percent) of the blood, that spreads throughout the entire volume of the blood upon returning to the body, induced secondary emissions (biophotons are emitted by the activated cells) which destroyed viruses, bacteria, and--in autoimmune diseases--activated white blood cells. In autoimmune disorders it appears that the metabolically active T-cells and other immune cells absorb much greater numbers of biophotons than ordinary body cells, and this destroys them, thus slowing down or stopping the disease.

In 1974 German biophysicist Fritz-Albert Popp, without knowing the details of the research of Gurwitsch, was able to successfully detect the existence of biophotons, and theorizes that their origin is from cell microstructures and DNA.
Popp postulates that biological systems generally have the capacity to store coherent photons that come from the external world. According to him, the energy we extract from our food stems from the sunlight that plants store. His analysis strongly implies that "ultraweak" photon intensity can regulate the whole cell metabolism and related phenomena.
Ultraweak bioluminescence, the light emitted from organisms, was found to be coherent, laser like, and typically radiating with intensities of a few tens up to few hundreds of photons per square cm.
In his "Photon Storage in Biological Systems," Popp points out the master cellular communication and control system as follows:
"The photons which we have measured can be seen as a sort of "waste" from a virtual electromagnetic field with a high coherence. This field has a tendency to become stationary over the whole organism."
After additional analysis, he adds:
" Consequently, biological systems must exhibit 'holographic' properties to an extremely high degree. The successful trials in
finding 'pictures' of various organs in each other organ, such as the ear, the hands, the eyes (acupuncture, iris diagnosis) support these conclusions."
Popp concludes: "From this we can easily deduce that pattern recognition, as, for example, repair mechanisms and immunity, depends finally on the coherence of the photon field within the body."

Biophotons emitted from the center of fingernails and fingerprints from living humans were measured for twenty healthy subjects. Significantly more biophotons were emitted from fingernail than fingerprint for each finger of every subject. For thumb the average biophoton emission rate was 23.0 +/- 4.5 counts per second, and 17.2 +/- 2.0 counts per second from the nail, and print, respectively. There is a slight tendency that the little finger emits less than the other fingers. But some fingers emit far stronger than others, and it depends upon each individual subject which finger emits strongest. (T.J. Kim, K.W. Nam, H.S. Shin, S.M. Lee, J.S. Yang, K.S. Soh, "Biophoton Emission from Fingernails and Fingerprints of Living Human Subjects", Acupuncture and Electrotherapeutics Research, 27 , pp.85-94, Cognizant Communication Corp., 2002,2002)

Thermal stimulation with moxa leads the human body to radiate biophotons. As the biophoton emission intensifies after moxa, an attempt is made to detect changes in the human body. After moxa, the photon numbers and the body temperature are observed as a time chart before and after healing in Okada's manner. In contrast with the decreasing photon number, the temperature increases during the healing. (Tsutomu YANAGAWA, Hiroyuki SAKAGUCHI, Masahiro UENO and Kazuo NITTA, Life Science Labs., "Sustaining Faculty of Living Functions and Its Biophoton Observation", MOA Health Science Foundation, Tokyo, Japan)
Left-right biophoton asymmetry from the palm and the dorsum of hands from 7 Korean hemiparesis patients were studied. There is a strong tendency that the left-hemiparesis patients emit more biophotons from the right than the left hands, while the right-hemiparesis patient emits more from the left hand. Acupuncture treatment reduces dramatically the left-right asymmetry of biophoton emission rates. (Left-right asymmetry of biophoton emission from hemiparesis patients, Hyun-Hee Jung, Won-Myung Woo, Joon-Mo Yang, Chunho Choi, Jonghan Lee, Gilwon Yoon, Jong S. Yang, Sungmuk Lee & Kwang-Sup Soh, Indian Journal of Experimental Biology Vol. 41, May 2003, pp. 457-472 )
It turned out that biophoton emission reflects, (i) the left-right symmetry of the human body; (ii) biological rhythms such as 14 days, 1 month, 3 months and 9 months; (iii) disease in terms of broken symmetry between left and right side; and (iv) light channels in the body, which regulate energy and information transfer between different parts. (Biophoton emission of human body, S Cohen & F A Popp, Indian Journal of Experimental Biology Vol. 41, May 2003, pp. 446-451 )

IR BIOPHOTONS

A normal human body luminesces mainly from the head; the color of the luminescence is orange-red tinted with a little bluish-green. Red light is emitted from all over the body of a man who is getting angry and forms a thick halo. This is due to leakage of the internal energy of the body. When the angry man is irradiated for 15 minutes with red light, he will feel relaxed and the anger is relieved. At this time, the red light around the body disappears from the photograph and the status of normal luminescence is resumed.

A Japanese Ki-expert held his fingers toward cultured human liver carcinoma cells, HepG2, in culture dishes, for 5 or 10 min. After culturing for 24 h, we measured cell numbers, protein concentration per cell, certain mRNA expressions and the synthesis of regucalcin. The results were compared with those for control cells (non-treated cells). We found that the number of cells in the Ki-exposed groups were less than those in the controls by 30.3 and 40.6% with 5 and 10 min Ki-exposure, respectively. The protein content per cell in the Ki-exposed groups (5 and 10 min) was higher than that in the control groups by 38.8 and 62.9%, respectively. These results were statistically significant. Using RT–PCR, we found that the mRNA expression for c-myc, a tumor stimulator gene, was decreased, while that for regucalcin, which suppresses DNA synthesis, was increased. Our molecular biological studies and mathematical model analysis demonstrated that Ki-energy inhibited cancer cell division. The data also indicate that the Ki-effects involve some form of infrared radiation from the human body.

Mitochondria are found in human cells and generate most of our energy. They contain their own DNA, which contains key blueprints for maintaining these cellular power plants. Defects in the power-plant blueprints result in the cellular equivalent of a brownout, thus creating systemic energy deficiency that leads to localized functional failures. These blueprints are inherited exclusively from the mother.
Mitochondria appear to be excellent candidates for near infrared emitters of cells. It is also likely that they would emit the light in pulses whenever they discharge a load of ATP molecules that they have synthesized in the course of their normal function, namely oxidative phosphorylation.

All chlorophylls contain the heme group as the chromophore which absorbs the light energy used for photosynthesis.
Mitochondria contain practically all the heme proteins of tissue cells.
There was discovered a novel expression of the function of live mitochondria, which was called Reversible Excitation Light Induced Enhancement of Fluorescence (RELIEF). It appears restricted to mitochondria of mammalian cells, that are capable to detect the infrared light sources. Virus infected cultured cells change their expression of RELIEF within hours of infection. Neurons in culture express RELIEF quite strongly and change the expression as they develop, age and degenerate.

Douglas C. Wallace, a founder of the field of human mitochondrial genetics, has received a $2.25 million award from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to study how metabolic disorders may be triggered by genetic changes in the mitochondria. Wallace and his associates have already linked mitochondrial defects to a wide range of age-related disease symptoms.

BIOLOGICAL TRANSMUTATION

Neutrinos are produced in many circumstances in the earth, in the sun, stars and galaxies. The Sun may be regarded as a huge nuclear fusion reactor and hence a source of neutrinos. In order to detect these a detector has been built at the bottom of the Homestake mine in South Dakota. The reason for burying the detector so deep is that nuclear transmutation can also occur when cosmic rays interact with matter, but these are absorbed by the intervening rock leaving neutrinos as the only candidate for the transmutation. The detector is full of industrial cleaning fluid since Chlorine 37 is converted to Argon by the occasional neutrino; measuring the Argon content gives a measure of the neutrino flux through the detector.
The measured neutrino flux is only a third of that predicted by nuclear physics. A suggestion is that if neutrinos possess mass they may alternate between their three types (electron, tauon and muon neutrinos) with only one form being detected. That "solar neutrino problem" has persisted for many years, since 1968 when the first solar neutrino experiment, for which Ray Davis was awarded the Nobel Prize, made observations of electron neutrinos from the sun. Later similar radiochemical experiments in Russia and Italy with Gallium being transmuted to Germanium, showed a similar discrepancy.
On June 19, 1995, Texas A&M University hosted a low-energy transmutation Conference, sponsored by the "father of electrochemistry", Professor Dr. John O'M Bockris. Some of the papers which were presented noted anomalies in the formation of new elements in cathodes -- definitely not sourced from contamination -- which were involved in cold-fusion experiments. For example: Drs. T. Ohmori and Reiko Notoya, both of Hokkaido University, reported Iron formation in Gold and Palladium cathodes, Potassium changing into Calcium, Cs133 producing an element of mass 134, and Na23 becoming Na24; Dr. John Dash of Portland State University reported spots of silver, cadmium and gold protruding in palladium electrodes in both light and heavy water cells; Dr. Robert Bush of California Polytechnic, Pomona, reported strontium on the surface of nickel cathodes. (Rabzi, Georgiy S. Mechanism of low temperature transmutation. In: John O'M. Bockris. Proceedings of Low-energy Transmutation Conference, Texas A&M University, June 19, 1995. [Available from New Energy News, P. O. Box 58639, Salt Lake City, Utah 84158-8639; (801) 583-6232, fax: 583-2963])

For eight years, from 1875 to 1883, a German biologist named von Herzeele grew plants without soil, using solutions whose mineral content he measured and controlled. Like scientists before him in England, France and Germany he found that there were elements in the ashes of the plants he grew that could not have got in from the growth medium. He concluded that "plants are capable of effecting the transmutation of elements."
In the 1940s M. Baranger at the Ecole Polytechnic, Paris, decided to repeat von Herzeele's experiments but with tighter controls and greater precautions against error. He also performed a much larger number of experiments. His study lasted four years and involved thousands of analyses. Baranger measured the phosphor, potassium and calcium content of vetch seeds before and after germination in twice-distilled water. In some cases pure calcium chloride was added. He found that, in the case of seeds germinated using added calcium chloride, they experienced a 10 per cent increase in their potassium content and a significant decrease in their phosphor content. He concluded, "These results, obtained by taking all possible precautions, confirm the general conclusions proposed by V. Herzeele and lead one to think that under certain conditions the plants are capable of forming elements which did not exist before in the external environment."
In 1946, the director of the Dinard Maritime Laboratory, Henri Spindler, investigated seaweed and found that the algae Laminaria manufactured iodine out of water which did not contain this element.
In 1959, Dr Julien at the University of Besancon found that if he placed tenches into water containing 14 per cent sodium chloride, their production of potassium chloride increased by 36 per cent within four hours.
Prof. Perrault (Paris University) found that the hormone aldosterone provoked a transmutation of Na to K, which could be fatal to a patient; heart failure occurs when blood plasma K reaches approximately 350 mg/liter.
The labs of the French Society of Agriculture tried germinating rye seeds. They found that the initial input of 13.3 milligrams of magnesium dropped as low as 3.2 milligrams (a fall of 335 per cent) while the initial input of 7.3 milligrams of potassium rose to 16.6 milligrams (an increase of 133 per cent).
It is fair to add that scientists at other institutions have attempted to replicate these results and have found no evidence of transmutation (for instance professor Jungermann at University of California in 1977 and Carolyn Damon of the US Customs in 1978).

Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, a celebrated French chemist, discovered that chickens could produce more calcium in their eggshells than entered their bodies. Hence they had to be able to "create" the calcium, else their own bodies would have been completely depleted.
In 1822 an Englishman named William Prout had studied chicken eggs in incubation. He found that hatched chicks had more lime (calcium) in their bodies than was originally present in the egg!
Another French scientist named Henri Spindler discovered that a kind of algae called Laminaria could create iodine.
A German researcher named Vogel had planted cress seeds in a bell jar. They were fed nothing but distilled water; still, when grown they contained more sulphur than had been in the seeds originally.
C. Louis Kervran, the Conferences Director at the University of Paris, published in La Revue Generale Des Sciences in July 1960, and then published further details of his work in a book, Transmutations Biologiques, Maloine, Paris 1962.
As Kervran pointed out, the ground in Brittany contained no calcium; however, every day a hen would lay a perfectly normal egg, with a perfectly normal shell containing calcium. The hens do eagerly peck mica from the soil, and mica contains potassium - a single step below calcium in the standard hens denied calcium but not potassium, stay perfectly healthy and lay perfectly normal eggs. Hens denied both potassium and calcium will be sickly and lay only soft-shelled eggs. If these sick chickens are allowed to peck only mica - which they will frantically do - everything returns to normal again.
Kervran published the findings in his book "Biological Transmutations" (Kervran, L.C. (1966) "La Transmutation Biologique", Le Courier du Livre, Paris). He believed that biological transmutations were best attained by maximizing the "vital forces". Thus natural rainwater should be used rather than distilled tap water; the growth medium should be natural in origin rather than inorganic chemicals; lighting should be natural daylight, or direct sunlight rather than artificial, electric lighting; also the phases of the moon were implicated in the chances of a transmutation occurring.
Kervran found that in nuclido-biological reactions, oxygen is always in the form of O, never O₂; reactions with nitrogen occur only with N₂, insofar as is known. The following reactions (shown in simplistic form) have been observed:

Na₂₃+ H₁ ® Mg₂₄	Na₂₃ + O₁₆ ® K₃₉	Na₂₃ - O₁₆® Li₇
Na₂₃® Li₇ + O₁₆	K₃₉ + H₁ ® Ca₄₀	Mg₂₄ + Li₇ ® P₃₁
Mg₂₄ + O₁₆ ® Ca₄₀	F₁₉ + O₁₆ ® Cl₃₅	C₁₂ + Li₇ ® F₁₉
Cl₃₅ ® C₁₂ + Na₂₃	Fe₅₆ - H₁ ® Mn₅₅	2 O₁₆ - H₁ ® P₃₁
O₁₆ + O₁₆ ® S₃₂	2 N₁₄ ® C₁₂ + O₁₆	N₁₄+ Mg₁₂ ® K₁₉
Si₂₈ + C₁₂ ® Ca₄₀	Si₂₈ + C₁₂ ® Ca₄₀	P₃₁ + H₁ « S₃₂

No reasonable answer was available until... a bold theoretical assumption, due to Weinberg in 1967, turned out as experimentally true. Due to this 'neutral current hypothesis' we are allowed to write such nuclear reactions as:

p + v « p' + v' ;

or: p + v « p' + v' ;

or: p « p' + v + v

where p denotes a proton, v a neutrino, and v the anti-neutrino. We even have two sorts of neutrinos to play with: the electronic and the muonic one.

J.E. Zundel, head of a paper company with a chemical analysis laboratory, and later a chemical engineer of the Polytechicum School of Zurich, Switzerland, utilized the mass spectrometer at the Microanalysis Laboratory of the French National Scientific Research Center, and neutron activation mass analysis at the Swiss Institute for Nuclear Research in Villigen to positively confirm, in the output of the hens, an increase in calcium of 61% to an accuracy of 2%. Such results and instrumentation, of course, removed any doubt that the effect could be due to statistical variation. In the same experiments, the plants increased their phosphorus 29% and their sulphur 36%.
In 1965, Hisatoki Komaki, professor of applied microbiology at Mukogawa University, Japan, reported the formation of phosphorous in a wide range of microorganisms grown in a medium deficient in phosphorous. He suggested that nuclear reactions were taking place in the cells of the microorganisms.
When he became the head of a research laboratory at Matsushita Electric Company, Komaki conducted research conclusively proving that microorganisms (including some bacteria and two kinds each of molds and yeast) could transmute sodium into potassium. In fact, he placed a brewer's yeast product on the market that, when applied to composts, increases their potassium content. The Japanese researchers, having replicated Kervran's astounding results, recommended him to the Nobel Committee for a Nobel Prize for such epochal work. Thus Kervran became a Nobel nominee, though he was not granted the prize.

In a letter (7 January 1974), Kervran attributed the transmutations in plants in part to the power of enzymes:

In a Petri dish 9 cm. in diameter I started germinating 50 oat seeds. The culture continued for 6 weeks or 3.6 million seconds give or take a few ten thousands of seconds... The area of 'cosmic interaction' was 63 cm³... During this time on this surface 3.9 mg of K were transmuted into Ca; this must be ~ 6 x 10¹⁹ atoms of K transmuted in 3.6 x 10⁶ seconds or 1.8 x 10¹³ atoms per second or 2.6 x 10¹¹ per cm²/second. The proportion of K transmuted was ~ 46% in 6 weeks. This integration of results for the phenomenon is not constant: it is imperceptible during the first days when one witnesses the synthesis of enzymes which will provoke the transmutations; even at the end of a week the effect is hardly to be noticed. It develops rapidly during the 2nd and 3rd weeks, then slows down during the 4th week... The phenomenon seems to be asymptotic and at the end of the 6th week transmutation progresses only very slowly.. Which demonstrates yet once again that the action of the ambient is insufficient, that there is an energy regulated by the metabolism of the germination and growth which is at the origin of these transmutations... Obviously this calculation was one for a macro-section and not for the effective section... Moreover, there is in biology an important phenomenon which must not be overlooked: some molecules assemble in helix shapes (DNA and RNA for example). There are also some oriented assemblages which polarize light, most often to the left. These oriented constructions have an oriented electromagnetic field, and a molecule such as DNA can be compared to a solenoid in which charged particles (mu^- for example) are somehow partly channeled in the interior, and thus concentrated...

French physicist Oliver Costa de Beauregard, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Institut de Physique Theorique Henri Poincare (Faculty of Sciences, Paris) who is also Director of the Centre National de la Reserche Scientifique (C.N.R.S.) suggests that such transmutations neither takes place through strong interactions, nor through electromagnetic forces, but through the weak interaction. This takes place through the neutral current of the intermediate vector boson, the so called Zo particle recently discovered by particle physicists. Kervran's reaction for a biological transmutation from Potassium (K) to Calcium (Ca) in germinating oats is thus explained as being initiated by neutrino capture (from cosmic rays) and the weak interaction follows mediated by the Zo neutral current (the Z° probably existing as a virtual particle):
neutrino + Hydrogen ion + Potassium ion -- Zo/enzyme--> Calcium ion + antineutrino

In 1978 Solomon Goldfein of the US Army's Material Laboratory at Fort Belvoir suggested a possible mechanism for biological transmutations. He suggests that such transmutations would most likely involve an organic molecule with a central metal atom: Magnesium Adenosine Triphosphate (or Mg-ATP).
Goldfein says that a stack of these molecule could form a helical chain. The Mg-ATP could also produce oscillating electric currents which act as a microminiaturized cyclotron, accelerating hydrogen ions to speeds near that of light and giving them enough potential to transmute an element to the next higher number in the table of elements.
Goldfein, the principal investigator of an US Army study, quotes from the Report 2247, Energy Development from Elemental Transmutations in Biological Systems, U .S. Army Mobility Equipment Research and Development Command, May 1978. DDC No. AD AO56906 which suggests that cold fusion is taking place in biological entities:
"The purpose of the study was to determine whether recent disclosures of elemental transmutations occurring in biological entities have revealed new possible sources of energy. The works of Kervran, Komaki, and others were surveyed, and it was concluded that, granted the existence of such transmutations (Na to Mg, K to Ca, and Mn to Fe), then a net surplus of energy was also produced. A proposed mechanism was described in which Mg adenosine triphosphate, located in the mitochondrion of the cell, played a double role as an energy producer. In addition to the widely accepted biochemical role of MgATP in which it produces energy as it disintegrates part by part, MgATP can also be considered to be a cyclotron on a molecular scale. The MgATP when placed in layers one atop the other has all the attributes of a cyclotron in accordance with the requirements set forth by E.O. Lawrence, inventor of the cyclotron. " "It was concluded that elemental transmutations were indeed occurring in life organisms and were probably accompanied by a net energy gain." (lieutenant colonel Thomas E. Bearden, PhD, AIDS Biological Warfare, 1988, Chapter 5 Extraordinary Biology)

POLARIZED LIGHT IN NATURE

Light becomes polarized as it enters the atmosphere at low angles. Moonlight and skylight are polarized, as is reflected light. Birds can detect polarized light from sunlight's penetration through the atmosphere, and it has been hypothesized that the pattern of polarized light in the evening sky is the primary cue that provides a reference for their orientation. Experiments with caged homing pigeons have demonstrated that they will alter their behavior when, with the Sun in the same position, the location of artificially polarized light is changed.
Horizontally polarized ultraviolet light reflected from the surface of water is the main optical cue for habitat finding by insects living in, on, or near water.
The adaptations of the visual system of insects living in, on, or near water to reflection-polarization patterns at water surfaces are briefly reviewed and discussed by means of three representative species, viz. the waterstrider (Gerris lacustris), the backswimmer (Notonecta glauca), and the dragonfly (Hemicordulia tau).
Dung beetles active during the day depend on sunlight polarization patterns. On moonlit nights, one twilight-active species worked particularly late. At sunset the African dung beetles (Scarabaeus zambesianus) is able to orientate itself using the polarization pattern formed around the setting sun, but when the sun is 18 degrees beyond the horizon, known as astronomical twilight, the pattern is lost. But the moon will create a new polarized path in the sky. It lasts for as long as the moon is in the sky. Polarized moonlight allows the dung beetle to find its burrow after gathering dung food.

The shorter the wavelength, the greater the proportion of celestial polarization that can be used by animals under cloudy-sky conditions. This phenomenon may solve the ultraviolet paradox of polarization vision in insects such as hymenopterans and dipterans. In bees and ants only detectors of ultraviolet are sensitive to polarization, changes in hue do not affect the polarization-detection system. Ultraviolet gets through clouds better than the visible wavelengths.

The scales on butterfly wings were known reflect light waves in only one plane. The latest experiments on the butterfly Heliconius cydno, which is common in tropical rainforests in Central and South America, "put a whole new perspective on butterfly-wing evolution", says team member Alison Sweeney of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. They pinned female butterfly wings to a board, in front of which they placed neutral or depolarizing filters. They then released five male butterflies nearby and counted how many times these flew towards the female wings. The males approached more often when the female wings were under the neutral filter, which let their natural effect on light waves shine through. A display viewed through a depolarizing filter seemed to leave the males cold. (Sweeney, A., Jiggins, C. & Johnsen, S Insect communication: Polarized light as a butterfly mating signal. Nature, 423, 31, (2003).)

At high altitudes (8,000+ feet) light is naturally polarized. The polarization of the sky (and the fact that it's blue) do come from Rayleigh scattering in the upper atmosphere. The degree of polarization usually reaches about 75% at maximum and the peak is at around 550nm wavelength. The fact that it isn't 100% is due to a number of factors including multiple scattering, ground reflections and aerosols. The more additional scattering (Mie or Rayleigh) that occurs in the lower atmosphere, the lower the degree of polarization. So the more junk you have to look through, the less polarized the sky tends to be.
The polarization of the rainbow is caused by the internal reflection into the water particles. The first refraction (A) separates the sunlight into its component colors, the reflection from the inner surface (C) polarizes the light and the second refraction (B) increases the separation. The rays strike the back surface of the drop (C) close to the Brewster angle, so almost all the light reflected is polarized. The drops of water refract and reflect the rays from the sun backwards, at 42 degrees to the incoming rays. Thus, the rainbow is seen in a direction opposite to the sun.
The primary rainbow is 96% polarized while the secondary is 90% polarized. The extra brightness of the sky inside the primary rainbow (and outside the secondary rainbow) is also polarized tangentially.
The most common halos are the Sun Dogs (also called mock suns or false suns): bright multi-colored patches of light on both sides of the sun (to find them extend from the sun one hand at arm length). Colored halos are formed by refraction in the crystals and are generally just slightly polarized. White halos are produced mainly by reflection and they can show stronger polarization, generally tangential to the sun.

VISION OF THE POLARIZED LIGHT

The eye displays birefringence, a property which enables it to identify the polarized light. The minimal value of the birefringence always appears in the corneal centre and varies from 9 to 43° for different corneas. Birefringence of the cornea increases monotonically more than one order in the direction of the corneal periphery. A small hour glass shaped patch at the side of our retinas is polarized and can see the plane of polarization of light. On this this patch are appearing "Haidinger's fringes" and as it is at the side of the eye, you have to learn to see out of the corner of your eye to see the plane of polarization.

Molecules of air in our atmosphere act to polarize sunlight. By this, it is meant that when photons come in contact with a molecule of air, they'll vibrate more in one direction than another. To an observer on the surface extremely sensitive to polarized light, some path angles through the air transmit light more readily than do others. Light is most polarized 90 degrees away from the Sun. For example, at sunset the light is most polarized directly overhead. You may be able to see this without having to use a polarizing filter. As the Sun is setting, look overhead and you may notice a faint, violet, bow tie-shaped area above you that points north and south. This is called Haidinger's Brush.

In 1846 Haidinger was studying minerals under polarized light, carefully trying to discern any special pattern in the refracted light. He then perceived a faint yellowish stain or brush that remained when he looked directly at the light without interposing the crystal. The brush rotated together with the polarizer proving that he was "seeing" the polarization state. That stain is now known as the Haidinger's brush, and he can be credited with the unique discovery of an extra "sense". However, more that a century and a half later, this phenomenon remains little known (even by scientists working in optics!).

Haidinger's brushes are a faint blue and yellow dumbbell-shaped image that is produced in the human eye by the selective absorption of polarized light by the yellow macular pigment of the fovea, Lutein, and can be used to detect polarized light without special equipment. Lutein is a long chain molecule that absorbs more for light polarized with the electric vector parallel to the molecular axis than for the perpendicular polarization. (THE ROLE OF THE MACULAR PIGMENT IN THE DETECTION OF POLARIZED LIGHT. Bone, R.A., Vision Research 20:213, 1980)
Lutein is a yellow lipid and its name comes from the Latin word luteus, "saffron-yellow." It is an antioxidant that is found throughout the body, but is concentrated in the macula. Lutein protects the eyes from free radical damage caused by the sun's harmful rays. Lutein absorbs near-to-UV blue light.
Lutein from food is deposited in the macula lutea, or "yellow spot", in the retina. Several studies have shown a positive relationship between consumption of lutein and a lower incidence of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and cataracts.
Researchers at the University of Utah recently conducted a study that showed that lutein may offer protection to cone cells in the retina. Lutein works extremely well in protecting the retina against sunlight damage.
"I now take 20 mg Lutein each morning and in one month have noticed a tremendous change in the sun. I almost gave up daytime driving a month ago as the sun was bothering me so much. The lutein has made a huge difference in my life."

Into a study, 34 smokers and 34 nonsmokers were compared. The smoking group had a mean Macular pigment optical density, MP, of 0.16 (SD = 0.12) compared to a mean MP of 0.34 (SD = 0.15) for nonsmokers.
Another study regarding the sex differences in macular pigment (MP) optical density showed that males had 38% higher MP density than females despite similar plasma carotenoid concentrations and similar dietary intake.

Lutein levels in the eye are unaffected by light and oxidation throughout the day.
Lutein is found in many foods including corn, dark leafy greens, collard greens, kale, leeks, peas, spinach, romaine lettuce, peppers, squash, red grapes and eggs.

In 1954, William Shurcliff (then employed by Polaroid) pointed out that the Haidinger's brush can also detect circular polarized light and distinguish the sense of rotation.
How to see polarization with the naked eye: "I can see it particularly clearly in the twilight when I stare at the zenith; the whole sky seems to be covered by a network, as it were, and everywhere I look I see this characteristic pattern. It is very pleasing to be able to determine the direction of polarization without an instrument in this way, an even obtain an estimate of its degree" Minnaert, Light and Color in the Outdoors

Analyzing the change in appearance of the Haidinger brushes when the incoming polarization state was varied, van Blokland and Verhelst concluded that the cornea behaved as a biaxial crystal with its fastest principal axis normal to the corneal surface and its slowest principal axis 20 to 30 degrees down towards the nose. (Van Blokland, GJ, Verhelst, SC. (1987) Corneal polarization in the living human eye explained with a biaxial model J Opt Soc Am A 4,82-90)

POLARIZED LIGHT AND LIFE

In 1848, Louis Pasteur, found that a beam of polarized light passing through a pure solution of naturally produced organic nutrients, would rotate the plane of polarization both right and left but would not rotate through artificially synthesized organic nutrients.
The amino acids, with the exception of glycine, exhibit optical activity (rotation of the plane of polarized light). Proteins are usually levorotatory ( L- form, they rotate the plane of polarization to the left) when polarized light of wavelengths in the visible range is used. Nearly all amino acids in biological systems are levorotatory, while all sugars, including deoxyribose an important component of DNA, are always right handed or dextrorotatory (they rotate the plane of polarization to the right) .

Circularly polarized light is produced as the sum of two perpendicular plane-polarized components that are l/4 (or 90°) out of phase.
In laboratory experiments aimed at simulating conditions on a lifeless Earth, a mixture of amino acids can be formed, consisting of mostly glycine and d/l-alanine. If the mixture is irradiated by circularly polarized ultraviolet light, mostly the levo-alanine, the form existing in living beings, will remain. This could account for the excess of L-amino acids found in the Murchison meteorite and could explain the origin of the homochirality of biological molecules. (Circular polarization in star-formation regions: implications for biomolecular homochirality. Bailey J, Chrysostomou A, Hough JH, Gledhill TM, McCall A, Clark S, Menard F, Tamura M.)
Reflection Nebulae are identified as a possible source of circularly polarized light in the infrared. It is assumed that the circular polarization extends to the ultraviolet. Only 17% of observed light is circularly polarized in these systems. This mechanism produces polarized light exactly when and where it is needed in regions where star formation is occurring and organic molecules are known to be present. (Astronomical Sources of Circularized Polarization and the Origin of Homochirality. J. Bailey (c2.4), See: Nature 389, p. 804 (1997))

Bruce Garetz and colleagues at Polytechnic University in New York and the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago illuminated an aqueous solution of glycine with either linearly-polarized or circularly-polarized light from a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser.
Not only does the laser dramatically speed up the nucleation of glycine crystals, but the polarization determines which of three polymorphs (crystal structures) of glycine, called alpha, beta and gamma, forms. The alpha structure is made up of stacked planes, while the gamma structure consists of many parallel, twisting strands.
"Using circularly polarized light the alpha-polymorph is always produced," claim the researchers. On the other hand, linearly-polarized light from the laser promoted exclusive formation of the gamma structure.
Previous work by the group had suggested that polarized light accelerated crystal formation by helping to align the dissolved molecules in clusters.

Professor EIKE G. HENSCH from the Institute of Biocybernetics in Nienburg said: "Incident frequencies falling in a left-handed circular direction have degenerative properties and are from the latest point of view responsible for chronic ailments. Incident vibrations falling in a right-handed circular direction with low intensities have euphoric and positive properties which can be found in good foodstuffs and in nature."
A macroscopic chiral factor (vortex motion) selects the chirality of a supramolecular structure, with the chirality detected at the molecular level. Vortex motion during key aggregation processes at some stage of chemical evolution may have led to biomolecular homochirality. (J.M. Ribo et al: Chiral sign induction by vortices during the formation of mesophases in stirred solutions. (SCI 2001 292:2063))

The polarized light has shown the following effects:
• The activation of ATP production (ATP is an important storage and energy transfer mechanism in the human body);
• Increased support for the multiplication of collagen fibres;
• The enhancement of important specific enzymes involved in cell regeneration;
• Support for the lymphatic system for cellular regeneration;
• Support for the development of new blood vessels;
• Creation of a significant increase of DNA and protein synthesis within the cells of the body.
Exposure of a small skin area (400 cm2) of healthy volunteers to visible (400 - 2000 nm) incoherent polarized (VIP) light (degree of polarization > 95%) in therapeutic doses (4.8 - 9.6 J/cm2) induces a rapid structural-functional modification of erythrocytes, leukocytes, and some plasma components in the whole circulating volume of blood.
"We have recorded changes in: lipid peroxidation (LPO) produce content in erythrocyte membranes, deformability and viscosity of erythrocytes, phagocytotic activity of monocytes, cytotoxic activity of natural killer cells against target malignant cells, release of bactericidal proteins by granulocytes, plasma content of LPO-produces and pro-inflammatory cytokines, interleukine-1 beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha, total anti-oxidant activity of plasma. Most of these effects were of regulative character, as their direction and extent depended on the initial level of the studied parameters: the initially low indices increased, while the initially high ones decreased or remained unaffected. In 24 h the changes were still detectable in 33 - 62% of volunteers. We have shown a great similarity of the blood changes induced by the skin exposure and by the direct irradiation of blood in vitro. Moreover, we obtained an evidence that the light-induced rapid modification of the entire circulating blood resulted from the direct effect upon it of transcutaneously irradiated blood, rather than of other systems of organism." (K A Samoilova, K D Obolenskaya, A V Vologdina, S A Snopov and E V Shevchenko, "Single Skin Exposure to VisiblePolarized Light Induces Rapid Modification of Entire Circulating Blood: Improvement of Rheologic and ImmuneParameters", Institute of Cytology, Russian Academy of Sciences: St Petersburg, Russia.)

VISION OF THE MAGNETIC FIELDS

In birds, detecting magnetic fields depends on the visual system. The retina may contain both visible light sensors and magnetic field sensors. Both kinds of sensors activate neurons within the visual signaling pathway.
Robins are small birds with a body length of 14cm. They have a distinctive red face and breast, and brown wings and back.
For the monocular tests, one eye of the robin was covered with a cap so that light could reach the other eye only.
Wolfgang Wiltschko at Goethe-Universität and and his colleagues at Ruhr-Universität, Germany, tested each eye of the European robins and found that magnetoreception is dependent on right eye input. The right eye sends its information to the left hemisphere of the brain. Seeing the magnetic map is a left brain function. Lateralization of brain functions, once believed to be a human characteristic, has now been found to be widespread among vertebrates.
"We found that captive migrants tested in cages with the magnetic field as the only available orientation cue were well oriented in their appropriate migratory direction when using their right eye only, but failed to show a significant directional preference when using their left eye. This implies that magnetoreception for compass orientation, assumed to take place in the eyes alongside the visual processes, is strongly lateralized, with a marked dominance of the right eye/left brain hemisphere." (Lateralization of magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird, WOLFGANG WILTSCHKO, JOACHIM TRAUDT, ONUR GÜNTÜRKÜN, HELMUT PRIOR & ROSWITHA WILTSCHKO, Nature 419, 467 - 470 (03 October 2002))
Unlike robins, pigeons have shown that even when they're blindfolded they can find their way home, but when small magnets were attached to them, they became disoriented.

VISION OF UV LIGHT

Cornea absorbs essentially all UVC and 40% of 320 nm radiation and longer wavelength radiation.
Lens of a young eye will absorb most ultraviolet below 370 nm. As the lens yellows with age, it absorbs more ultraviolet, as much as 99% radiation between 320 nm to 340 nm and 98% of 360 nm and 90% of 400 nm. A child’s lens absorbs only a of fraction UV compared to an adult's lens. About 50% of your cumulative, lifetime sun exposure occurred by age 16. (link: photos of fresh lenses from the eye bank are from 79 year old (top) and 39 year old (bottom) donors).
Age-related mechanisms of repair of UV damage are postulated that may diminish or be overwhelmed with age or cumulative UV exposure.
When the lens becomes opaque due to cataracts, it may be surgically removed, and can be replaced with an artificial lens. Even with the lens removed (a condition known as aphakia) the patient can still see, as the lens is only responsible for about 30% of the eyes' focusing power. However, aphakic patients report that the process has an unusual side effect: they can see ultraviolet light. It is not normally visible because the lens blocks it. Some artificial lenses are also transparent to UV with the same effect. The receptors in the eye for blue light can actually see ultraviolet better than blue. Military intelligence is said to have used this talent in the second world war, recruiting aphakic observers to watch the coastline for German U-boats signaling to agents on the shore with UV lamps.
It has been suggested that without a UV-absorbing lens, there would be cumulative damage to the retina, but aphakic patients do not seem to suffer seriously even after many years. However cutting out UV gives us sharper vision. This is because a lens can only focus a limited range of colours at the same time. Increasing the range of wavelengths leads to a distortion called chromatic aberration, which will be familiar to people with cheap camera lenses.
The eye represents a compromise between clear focus and breadth of spectrum.
An illustration of how ultraviolet appears is provided by the Impressionist painter Claude Monet. Following cataract surgery in 1923, his colour palette changed significantly; after the operation he painted water lilies with more blue than before. This may be because after lens removal he could see ultraviolet light, which would have given a blue cast to the world.

Prof Stark possesses UV vision because he is aphakic in one eye and, with Professor Karel Tan, has published research on the nearest visible equivalent. His conclusion is that it looks whitish blue or, for some wavelengths, a whitish violet.
This appears to be because the three types of colour receptor (red, green and blue) have similar sensitivity to ultraviolet, so it comes out as a mixture of all three - basically white, but slightly blue because the blue sensors are somewhat better at picking up UV.
Prof Stark says on his website: "individual cone types were more sensitive to UV light than expected on the basis of their resident rhodopsins. What does UV light look like? Actually, it looks a desaturated (whiteish) blue. I speculate that UV looks whitish blue because all three cones are sensitive to UV light but that the blue cone is especially UV sensitive.
The graph is showing the scotopic sensitivities from aphakic and normal observers. The difference in the UV is due to the lens. Is interesting to note that normal observers have an increasing UV sensitivity for wavelengths lower than 350 nm.
UV radiation (200-400 nm) is generally considered to be outside the range of visible illumination for mammals. Experiments on hamsters confirm that wavelengths as low as 305 nm are transmitted through the clear ocular media to the retina. Furthermore, low irradiances of broadband (340-405 nm) and monochromatic (360 nm) UV radiation are capable of suppressing high nocturnal levels of pineal melatonin in intact, but not blind, hamsters. These data indicate that the hamster eye and neuroendocrine system are able to detect and respond to near-UV wavelengths. (Brainard GC, Podolin PL, Leivy SW, Rollag MD, Cole C, Barker FM., Near-ultraviolet radiation suppresses pineal melatonin content, Endocrinology. 1986 Nov;119(5):2201-5)

VISION AND BRAIN

The The left diagram shows our overall light sensitivity in daylight vision, for a 5° visual area (red dot line). This is quite close to the peak sunlight luminance (in terms of number of photons at the earth's surface) around 540 nm. You can directly see the color of this peak sensitivity after briefly looking at the sun. It produces a brilliant and beautiful yellow green positive afterimage. The explanation for this peak sensitivity is that vision is tuned to the wavelengths where sunlight is brightest (most abundant) at the surface of the earth.
The diagram shows that the eye is more sensitive to the ultraviolet than to infrared radiation. The explanation is found into the right diagram, which shows that dark adapted or scotopic (rod) vision extends into ultraviolet. Thus, compared to a yellow green light, a scarlet light must emit 2 times as many photons, and a blue violet light 20 times as many, to appear equally bright.
The visible spectrum represents the range of electromagnetic radiation that interacts with matter in the most complex and varied ways (at least 14 ways, to be exact). This in turn causes changes in light that are most informative about the chemical or molecular structure of surfaces and objects. In short, vision is tuned to the wavelengths that tell us the most about the world.
The retina has roughly 100 million rods adapted for dim light and night vision and the 6 million cones that give us daylight contrast and color. The distribution of photoreceptor cells varies considerably across different parts of the retina (diagram at right). The fovea contains a "central bouquet" of only two types of cones (R and G); the B cones and rods are entirely excluded. This allows a tight packing of anywhere from 160,000 to 250,000 cones per square millimeter — an average cell spacing (about 2.5 to 2 microns) that equals the eye's maximum possible optical resolution. Occasionally the R and G photopigments become chemically almost or exactly identical, making the relatively small wavelength separation between the R and G cones disappear. This results in a male color anomaly called dichromacy (or "red-green colorblindness"). About 6% of healthy males have this restricted discrimination on the r/g opponent contrast; they have particular trouble distinguishing among warm colors and bluish greens. More than one type of R cone can be found in about 50% of normal women and 10% of normal men (about 32% of all people), which increases long wavelength sensitivity even more. The research on cone responses to light show very large variations across individuals in color vision.
The rods, that are absent from the fovea but form a dense, diffuse ring of cells at about 20° around it, are providing dim light vision that is very poor at resolving visual detail or texture. The density of rods remains relatively high over more than half the eye's interior surface, and is higher on the nasal side of each eye, where the rods provide enhanced peripheral vision in dim light.
There are only about 1 million separate nerve pathways from each eye to the brain. This means that the average pathway must carry information from 6 cones and 100 rods! This pooling of so many rod outputs in a single signal considerably reduces scotopic visual resolution: even under optimal circumstances, rod visual acuity is only about 1/20th that of the cones, which is why it's impossible to read a book by moonlight.
The retina includes several types of cells, such as midget ganglion and parasol cell, which group neighboring cones and rods into center/surround receptive fields. These transform the individual photoreceptor outputs into contrasting channels of color information, and sharpen the image edge and contrast resolution based on the relative proportions of stimulation received by adjacent cones. So the retina does not merely respond to light, but it also transforms and sharpens the image before it sends the information to the brain for more complex interpretation.

When the photopigment is struck by a photon it instantly snaps or uncoils. As the number of snapping photopigments within the inner segment increases, the intensity of the nerve output from the cell also increases.
The rods and cones are fitted with a small ionic "pump" that continuously expels ions of sodium (Na+) inside the cell as it brings ions of potassium (K+) from outside. The resulting imbalance produces a small, steady electric current across the cell body. The action of light can increase or decrease this baseline electric potential. In other words, the rods and cones produce a continuous visual signal, unlike other sensors which are active only when stimulated.

The iris acts like a shutter to expand or contract the pupil opening from a minimum of 2mm up to a maximum of 5mm (in the elderly) to 8mm (in young adults). This can reduce the amount of light entering the eye by up to 95%. However, this represents a tiny fraction of the total range of illumination the eye can handle. The major changes in luminosity adaptation occur in the retina and brain; the iris makes prompt adjustments to relatively small changes in light intensity.
A piece of white paper viewed in direct noon sunlight is roughly 6.3 million times brighter than the same paper viewed under starlight! In fact, the eye is capable of making lightness discriminations across a 10 billion fold change in light levels. This vastly exceeds the range possible with any film or photosensitive material, and leads to the phenomenon of luminosity adaptation. Lightness contrast discrimination peaks for surface areas about 1/3d the apparent diameter of the full moon.

All primates — monkeys, apes and humans — acquired a second set of contrasting receptor cells: the R and G cones. This r/g contrast evolved from a genetic alteration in the mammalian Y cones, which divided into two receptors that differ only slightly in the chemistry of the photoreceptor molecule.
The primate brain is enlarged in the specific areas concerned with vision (occipital lobes).
The occipital lobes are almost exclusively concerned with the reception of visual impulses. Damage to one side leads to homonymous hemianopia, loss of all sight in the field of vision on the other side. This deficit applies to either eye: with a lesion of the right occipital lobe, for example, a patient is blind to any visual stimulus presented from the left side,
whether to the right or to the left eye.
A sleep research by Neils Rattenborg, reported in the February 4, 1999 issue of Nature, showed that when ducks sleep in the water in a row, the outer ducks on the row actually sleep less and keep an eye open facing the outside of the group, presumably to check for danger while sleeping.
Rattenborg said: "The EEG recordings confirmed that when one eye was open, the corresponding hemisphere was in a quiet waking state, while the opposite hemisphere was experiencing slow wave sleep. [When faced with a video of a predator's
approach,] . . . the wakeful hemisphere was capable of predator detection: the ducks initiated escape behaviour. The ducks would also make sure to alternate which of their halves was getting shut-eye -- and shutdown brain activity -- by rotating their bodies to switch the side that was facing outwards."

SURYA VIGYAN

Surya Vigyan is an alchemy employing solar energy. This solar science is one of the most significant sciences of ancient India. This science has been known only to the Indian Yogis and using it, one substance can be transformed into another through the medium of sun rays.
Surya Vigyan involves the following practices:
1. Daily purification through Arghyam
By this process, the element of Aditya (Sun) within us can be cultured and acquires the qualities of Aditya - namely lustrous and health preserving quality of the body and mind., light body, high intellect with grasping power, high intuition, memory and many other qualities.
By offering "Arghya", water thrown up from the palms of both hands. Arghya must be offered at sunrise at noon and at sunset, while seeing the sun and meditating on Aditya (Sun). By this means, there are destroyed the demons attacking the sun, known as Mantehars .
The Arghyams offered as worship to Sun or Aditya will help free the sun element in us. The word Manteha also means body, therefore the word mantehars refers to the devils in our body.
In Atharvanam 1-22 is written: "Anu Surya mudayatam hrudhyo harimacate goro hitasya Varnena tenatva paridadhmasi" which means that leucoderma and heart diseases when are attacked by exposure to the red rays of Sun, the health will be resorted.
The complexion of Sun god is red. When worshipping Surya Deva in the form of Surya yantra, it proceeds from the circumference to the centre. The first group are the 10 dikpalas, or guardians of the directions.
In some tantras, the Sun receives worship as Martanda Bhairava, and is pictured in an Ardhanareshvari form, half of his body being male, the other being female. His shakti is Prakasha Shakti, that is his energy of Light.
2. Pranayama (breathing techniques)
Prana is said to be the Sun that imparts life and light to all and dwells within the heart as the Self of all creatures. Prana in us makes us live and allows us to act. Alternate nostril breathing is the most important method for keeping our masculine and feminine energies in balance. Another practice is Svara Sadhana: "If the breath flows through Ida (left nostril) from sunrise and throughout the day, though Pingala (right nostril) from sunset and throughout the night it confers considerable good results." (Swami Shivananda, Kundalini Yoga)
3. Trataka on the sun (Sungazing)
"Very few Yogins do Trataka on the sun (sungazing). It requires the help of an experienced man by their side. They begin to gaze on the rising sun and after gradual practice they do Trataka on the sun even in the midday. They get some special Siddhis (psychic powers) by this practice." (Swami Shivananda, Kundalini Yoga)
In the Ramayana, we read how Vibhisana worships the sun with raised arms (Uttarakanda, canto 10, verses 6-9). In the Egyptian “Papyrus of Ani”, there is a hymn to Ra, in which we find the line “I lift my hands to thee in adoration when thou the living One dost set”
4. Mudras (Gestures)
4.1 Surya mudra: The yogis associate Surya Mudra with the Sun and the planet Uranus. It is for invoking health, energy, vitality, intuition and nervous system strength. Practice of this mudra removes lethargy and dullness and, instead, induces alacrity and activity. It eliminates all fatigue, heaviness and laziness in few minutes. The experts of the science of mudras claim that regular and long-term practice of this mudra awakens supernormal powers hidden in the human psyche.
The ring finger and the thumb are used in this mudra. The ring finger is folded down to touch the thumb. The other fingers are kept in a comfortably straight position.
Surya mudra has to be done with both the hands. Interlock the rings made by each hand's fingers as in a chain, without touching each other. Left hand's ring is vertical while right hand's ring is horizontal.
Ideally surya mudra has to be done early in the morning.
In palmistry, the ring finger is called the finger of Apollo or the finger of the Sun.
In Orthodox iconography, Jesus and John the Baptist are represented with the right hand in a blessing gesture, having the ring finger folded to touch the thumb.
On the right, is a detail of a sixth century Byzantine icon showing the gesture of blessing to be identical to Surya mudra. The picture from the left shows an old man representing God-Jesus as he is painted on the ceiling of the church from Sucevita, a 16th century monastery from Romania. The rays from the background are clearly suggesting the solar nature of old man who is doing the gesture of blessing in Russian style, with both ring finger and little finger folded. This gesture is identical with "Mano Pantea", “The Hand of the All Goddess”, which was a Roman sign of Blessing. It was later adopted by Christian clergymen. In Islam it is called the Hand of Fatima.
"Mano Pantea" was linked to the cult of Sabazius as a personification of justice. Sabazius, or Sabadius,. the father god of the Phrygians and Thracians, was known also as Sabbaoth/Sabaoth, one of the scriptural titles of God. Migrating Phrygians brought Sabazios with them when they settled in Anatolia (ca. 1200 BCE?) and that the god's origins are to be looked for in Macedonia and western Thrace, where was venerated by Thracians as the liberator from the cold season and was the solar patron of horses. In Bulgaria, the summer solstice sun is called Sabo, in a custom from the Thracian ancestors.
Romans identified the Jewish Yahveh Sabaoth ("of the Hosts") as Sabazius: "The same praetor compelled the Jews, who attempted to infect the Roman custom with the cult of Jupiter Sabazius, to return to their homes." (Valerius Maximus, Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings i.3, 2) The date corresponds to 139 BCE.
The ancient "Main de justice," (hand of justice) surmounting the staff which was used in France at coronations, and was pre. served in the treasury of St. Denis. This hand appears on the seal of Hugh Capet, and was continued till the time of the Renaissance.
4.2 The triangle of the sun
Go outside and raise the palms of your hands to the Sun. Make a triangle with your fingers. Your thumbs for the base of the triangle and your index fingers form the apex. Watch the sun through the triangle. At the beginning you'll see two suns, one with each eye. Try to merge the two suns into one, right in the center of the triangle. This is the secret behind the Masonic symbol that represents an eye into a triangle.
4.3 Viparitakarani Mudra
"The sun dwells at the root of the navel and the moon at the root of the palate. The process by which the sun is brought upward and the moon is carried downward is called Viparitakarani Mudra. The positions of the sun and the moon are reversed. On the first day do it for a minute. Gradually increase the period to three hours. After six months wrinkles on the face and grey hair disappear. The Yogin who practises this for three hours daily conquers death." (Swami Shivananda, Kundalini Yoga)

Swami Vishudhananda had demonstrated the miracles of this science about 50-60 years ago, by transforming a paper into rose and a cotton ball into gold.
In his autobiography, Yogananda describes his meeting with Swami Vishudhananda in Calcutta, and witnessing first hand Vishudhananda's feat of creating any perfume on demand out of thin air.
Swami Vishuddhanandji (d. 1937)(sometimes spelled: Vishuddhananda, Vishudhanandaaka; aka: Gandha Baba, Perfume Saint), was well-known for his supernatural powers and said to be an adept associated with the mysterious Gyanganj (Jnanaganj) hermitage somewhere in Tibet, a secret place of great masters.
Paul Brunton, in his book A Search in Secret India, wrote that he witnessed how Swami Vishuddhananda created a scent out of the air that Brunton had named, using a hand lens with wire frame and wire handle and the reflected rays of the sun. He used a white handkerchief that the focused rays had touched for several seconds.
Brunton saw then Vishudananda breaking the neck of a sparrow and, after an hour of being dead, producing its temporary resurrection using the sunlight reflected by a mirror and the lens, with which focused the light into the bird's eye.
Swami Vishuddhananda and Swami Viryananda could revive dead birds by concentrating the Sun's rays on the dead body. Gopinath Kaviraj has recorded that he himself saw Vishuddhananda reviving a dead bird thus.
This science has been kept alive by Divyendu Ghosh and some other Yogis, otherwise it has become almost extinct.

SUN AND SOUL

"Think of it this way," said God. "You are like a candle in the Sun. Oh, you're there all right. Along with million, ka-gillion
other candles who make up the Sun. And the sun would not be the Sun without you. Nay, it would be a sun without one of its candles. . .and that would not be the Sun at all; for it would not shine as brightly. Yet, how to know yourself as the Light when you are amidst the Light-that is the question."
"Well," the Little Soul perked up, "you're God. Think of something!"
Once more God smiled, "I already have," God said. "Since you cannot see yourself as the Light when you are in the Light, we'll surround you with darkness." "What's darkness?" the Little Soul asked.
God replied, "It is that which you are not." (Neale Donald Walsch, The Little Soul and the Sun)

"Not only supplies come in these rays, but also beings come to earth to do a certain task and then go back to the sun to be recharged and restored." (Omraam Michael Aivanhov, Light Is A Living Spirit)

After 40 days Maitreya destroyed the body and returned the particles, the tiny Devic lives (Solar Pitris) which made it up, to the sun from which they came. Maitreya mentions "tiny Devic lives (Solar Pitris)" in his discussion of returning the particles making up Jesus' light body to the sun.
The Solar Pitris, or Archangels, become the very avatars of the spiritual Sun's power.
The Pitris are very sacred among the Brahmins, because they are the Progenitors, or ancestors of men -- the first Manushya on this Earth -- and offerings are made to them by the Brahmin when a son is born unto him. They are more honoured and their ritual is more important than the worship of the gods.
There are seven classes of Pitris enumerated in the Purânas -- but only three classes (Solar Pitris or Agnishvattas) are composed of the progenitors (from pitar = father) of primeval man; one class creates the form of man, or rather becomes, that form (or physical man) itself; the other two are the creators of our souls and minds. Nearly all the Purânas agree that three of these Pitris are arupa, formless, while four (Lunar Pitris) are corporeal; the former being intellectual and spiritual, the latter material and devoid of intellect. The masculine creative power of the three solar Pitris, called Agni-dagdha ("Fire-givers") in Rig Veda, fecundates the feminine nature of the four lunar Pitris, an earthly essence, and out of this union are coming the living beings.

According to the Markandeya Puran, the Sun is the embodiment of Brahma, the world originates from the Sun and is established in it.
The passage of Krama-Mukti, the gradual liberation of the soul attained by Saguna-Upasanas, or qualitative meditations, is always traversed through the sun. The sun is regarded as a very important place, a halting point of the soul in the gradual ascent to the Absolute. Of all the deities who are supposed to direct the soul onwards in its passage upwards, the sun is considered the most important. It is a very prominent location where the soul is not only purified in an intensive manner but is landed in the realm of light as it finds itself in the region of the sun.
The soul that is to depart the body, after having completed its career of life through meditation in this manner, prays to the sun for opening a passage. The immediate experience after the body is cast off is one of ascent to the sun.
This view is presented into the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, CHAPTER V, Fifteenth Brahmana, where is a PRAYER TO THE SUN BY A DYING PERSON. Into the fourth paragraph it is written:
agne naya supatha, raye asman; visvani, deva, vayunani vidvan;
yuyodhy asmaj juharanam eno: bhuyistham te nama-uktim vidhema.
Agne naya supatha raye asman: O Divine Fire! Lead us along the right path;
Visvani deva vayunani vidvan: O Cosmic Fire god, you know everything, you are omniscient;
Yuyodhy asmaj juharanam eno: If we have done any mistake, please destroy these errors:
Bhuyistham te nama-uktim vidhema: We prostrate ourselves before you, again and again.

A similar view is presented into Chandgogya Upanisad 8.6:
5 But when he is departing from this body, he rises up along those same rays. He goes up with the sound 'OM'. No sooner
does he think of it, than he reaches the sun. It is the door to the farther world, open to those who have the knowledge but closed to those who do not.
6 In this connection, there is this verse:
One hundred and one, the veins of the heart.
One of them runs up to the crown of the head.
Going up by it, he reaches the immortal.
The rest, in their ascent, spread out in all directions. (Patrick Olivelle, Upanisads: Oxford world's Clasics)

In the sixth chapter (sixth prapatraka) of MAITRAYANA-BRAHMAYA-UPANISHAD, is described the relationship between the sun and the individual souls. The basic ideas can be presented as follows:
At the birth, the self, coming from the sun, enterers the new born baby, through the first breath, and establishes its location in the heart. With each heartbeat, the inner self takes energy from the body and grows stronger.
At the death, that inner self leaves the body and returns to the sun.
If the sun was not worshipped during the life, the soul will feed the sun with his energy and when it will become depleted, it will reincarnate, to regain its energy.
This Upanishad states that a man should worship the sun under the name of time. As we'll see, such practices were also used in the ancient Persia, Babylon, Greece and Rome.
The offering which is offered in the fire, goes to the sun. That is the main reason for the cremation rituals from ancient India. The dead body is offered to the sun, by cremation, facilitating the liberation of the soul and ending the cycle of the reincarnations.
The most relevant paragraphs of the sixth chapter (sixth prapatraka) of MAITRAYANA-BRAHMAYA-UPANISHAD are:
1. The Sun is the outer Self, the inner Self is Breath.
2. And he who having entered the inner lotus of the heart, devours food, the same, having gone to the sky as the fire of the sun, called Time, and being invisible, devours all beings as his food.
16. Brahman is the Self of the sun, and a man should worship the sun under the name of time.
30. Aditya (sun) is the cause of new births (to those who do not worship him), of heaven (to those who worship him as a god), of liberty (to those who worship him as Brahman).
34. the adorable splendour of Savitri (sun) is to be meditated on by him who, abiding within his mind, meditates thereon. Here he attains the place of rest for the mind, he holds it within his own Self.
37. 'The offering which is offered in the fire, goes to the sun; the sun rains it down by his rays; thus food comes, and from food the birth of living beings.'
38. He who offers the Agnihotra breaks through the net of desire. […] meditating on one desire (that of liberty), he breaks through the shrine of Brahman.

Your heart opens to the light. It welcomes it in. Around the beautiful light at the centre of your heart (Anahata), are arrayed a series of petals, traditionally described as four layers of three petals. At the base of each petal is a point of light. These twelve points of light arrayed around your heart centre are especially receptive to light. They draw it in like a thirsty person drinking water.
In your own heart centre, at the centre of the flower is a pure light sometimes called the sacred flame.

The heart center (Anahata) has 12 petals, similar to the 12 signs of the zodiac, through the sun is passing during the year.
Anahata’s symbol (mandala) is made of two overlapping triangles, one pointing upwards and one downwards (the star of David), symbol which means, among other, the communion of the polarities (as in the sun) and the similitude of the “above” with the “bellow” (outer - inner sun). One triangle, facing upward symbolizes Shiva, the male principle. The other triangle, facing downward, symbolizes Shakti, the female principle. A balance is attained when these two forces are joined in harmony. It is in the heart chakra that Kundalini Shakti appears for the first time as a beautiful goddess. Similarly, according to the talmudic tradition, the union of Tiphareth and Shekhinah also takes place in the heart.
In the Sephiroth, Anahata corresponds to Tiphareth (= beauty), which is the sixth stage of the Sephiroth (= numbers), the centre and the Sun of the entire Tree. Tiphareth (6) circulates the energy among the upper and lower Sephiroth as indicated by the symbol of the hexagram. Here, the powers to left and the right, the above and the below can enter a stage of balance, beauty and harmony through a mutual process of healing sacrifice. Tipheret is represented by the torso, heart, and spine and is the mediating force between judgment and mercy.
The mystic sacrifices his personality (Netzach through Malkuth) for obtaining contact with the Soul in Tiphareth. This Heart centre (= Anahata) or Higher Self, also called The Holy Guardian Angel, provides us with intuitions that "feel right", instant wisdom without sensory imagery, mystical experiences that end in blinding light.
At the same time, Tiphareth is the place where the Divine sacrifices itself (Kether through Geburah) in order to enter into incarnation, the centre of sacrificed gods (Christ) and gods coming within range of human consciousness ("whoso hath seen me hath seen the Father").
Tiphareth is the switching point where divine powers are transmitted into human existence, and where we become aware of our spiritual mission on earth, the Great Work. Tiphareth illustrates the unique position of the human race as a healing mediator between heaven and earth.
Malkut (10) is the feminine emanation similar to Shakti or Kundalini and corresponds to the Muladhara chakra. It is also figured as the queen, mother, and daughter, the outlet from which the divine spirit, Shekhinah, enters the world. Tipheret and Malkut never separate but complete each other. One can only be understood and discerned through the other. Their union takes place in the heart centre (Anahata) and their mystical marriage in the divine realm brings harmony to the world.
"Each soul and spirit prior to its entering into this world, consists of a male and female united into one being. When it descends on this earth the two parts separate and animate two different bodies. At the time of marriage, the Holy One, blessed be He, who knows all souls and spirits, unites them again as they were before, and they again constitute one body and one soul, forming as it were the right and left of one individual." (from the Zohar)
The adversary to spiritual growth is called Vrtra. It is the kundalini in a dormant state. Vrtra keeps the kundalini from rising up the sushumna. The power of Vrtra is referred to as "Avarana Shakti". Avarana Shakti can literally mean "the power to hinder in time and space." Vrtra is the root power of the ego, and has the power to hinder our spiritual growth in the field of time and space, but not the power to hinder our true power or essence (Indra). It would be correct to call it the root power of the ego.
From the standpoint of chakras Vrtra manifests as the lower manifestation of the manipura (3rd or navel) chakra. Actually the lower functions of the first three chakras are the playground of Vrtra. In our society it has been taught, at times, that the mind is ruled by the manipura chakra. Actually the mind should be ruled by the Anahata chakra (4th or heart center). Once the mind activities are ruled or governed by the anahata chakra, the higher function of manipura chakra is activated opening the power of iccha shakti (the power of the will, desire, and love).

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PGE 2	Arachidonic acid (high in modern diet)	latanoprost (Xalatan), travoprost (Travatan), bimatoprost (Lumigan) and unoprostone isopropyl (Rescula)	Stimulates hyperalgesic response (sensitize to pain) Renal and bronchial vasodilation Inhibitor of platelet aggregation Stimulates uterine smooth muscle relaxation Cytoprotection of GI epithelial cells against acid Reduces gastric acid secretion Elevates thermoregulatory set-point in anterior hypothalamus (fever) Lowers IOP Promotes inflammation
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