Joe's Corner

Joe's Café of Lucid Speculations

Exclusive report by Dave Digdeeper

Recently, Joe has opened a café in the middle of his swamp and calls it "Café of lucid speculations". On a flier he said that he'd offer "good spirit(s) for wetland folks", "good music" and "some major brain twisting". I have seen the spirits part of it in my life, I like music but I was VERY curious about the brain-twisting thing, so I went to see him one evening.

Joe was sitting on the porch of his make-about building and was chewing on one of his inevitable half decomposed water lily leaves. "Hey Joe", I said. "I was wondering how you'd twist the brains of your friends. Am I welcome?" "Come on in, you're the first", he mumbled between two leaves.

The room was (still?) almost empty. Just an old toad was sitting there and waiting. "So what do you offer tonight?" I asked him warmly. "Well Dave, " he said, " I am afraid that you won't like most of my menus. I don't have drylanders here very often and most of my customers prefer worms over anything else". "And a drink?" I asked. "Would water do? It's fairly fresh", he said. "Hm, maybe later then...., so, is there an event tonight?" I said. "Yep", he said, "I can start right away..." "With just two customers?" "Ah, you know... but let's just start and they may eventually show up", he beamed at me.

I sat down on a trunk that looked dry enough to accommodate me. "I've been pondering about biophotons lately", Joe started. "Bioprotons" the toad growled but fell silent on Joe's angry view. He continued: "I read this book of a German researcher, Fritz-Albert Popp, who has devoted his life's work to them." "So that's the speculation part of your café?" I said jokingly. "You came here as a free person, you are free to leave, but if you stay you just be quiet and listen", Joe snapped. "Yes, Joe, sorry" I said, knowing about his bad nerves since that latest incident (see Newsletter 1/03).

"The guy found out that all living organisms give off a very weak light. It is so dim that even in the darkest room you can't see it.... BUT he was able to measure it with a very sensitive detector. Originally the phenomenon had been discovered by a Russian scientist in the 1920s but it took until the 70s before the technology was mature enough to distinguish the real signal from the 'background noise' the detection would make."

The toad ordered a cup of fresh earthworms and Joe served it grumpily. Then he continued: "He started to make a lot of different experiments, with plants and animal cells, with leaves, fruit, vegetables, animal tissue, and in the end even with whole people. The essence of what he found out is that the intensity of the light seems to be related to the healthiness of the organisms. Only living things give off that light, dead material doesn't. He found all sorts of different light intensities. He could clearly differentiate between healthy and sick people, for example. And imagine, when he compared organic food with food grown in conventional agriculture he could clearly distinguish them from each other.

"May I say something?" I asked. He nodded. "Even if there were such a thing as biophotons and even if organic apples would produce a different pattern than conventionally grown ones, where's the punch line?" I said. "Look," he said, "if an organic apples gives off more light than a non-organic apple and if a healthy issue, umm, I mean tissue, gives off more light than a sick tissue, it means an organic apple is healthier". "And these rotten water lily leaves you're chewing on?" "They are fermented, man, not rotten.... but I was going to say: If anything reduces the 'live energy' of a conventional apple, what prevents it from reducing mine as well if I eat it?"

"Joe," I said, "you know, I saw people even sell concentrated water at prices that would kill a grown up man. Shouldn't we rather try to stay on the grounds of solid science and keep away from this kind of pulling people's legs?"

"There's more to life than you can even think of", Joe said. "I know it. But I am having a hard time convincing anybody. That's why I am looking for evidence and for some not all so conventional scientists, which still do solid work. Popp's work is solid science". I loved Joe in that moment. So I softly said: "Joe, is this café the right place for your ideas? Shouldn't you rather travel and give speeches to an audience with more fervour for your speculations?"

It was right then when the toad burped after having swallowed the last earthworm. "Toads only eat worms that glow healthily. Good night everybody", she said, put a coin on the table and walked out.

"Good night Joe, I said and took off, wondering all the way about this wild and wise friend of mine.

• International Institute of Biophysics: http://www.lifescientists.de/ib_000e_.htm
• The German Research Group of Prof. Dr. F.A. Popp: http://www.lifescientists.de/ib0200e_.htm
• Bibliography of Biophotons research: http://www.lifescientists.de/publication/bibliography1-1.htm