Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark

We more readily commiserate with the times when life is like a boa constrictor wrapped around our windpipes, squeezing out breath; like a dark ogre stealing our joy, our purpose and our hope as we sleep; or sometimes just like a thick black airless cave with no apparent exit.

While so much of our self-exploration today is hash-tagged #wellness and displayed, it became obvious to me in the far reach of sacred lands, encircled by campfires and eucalypts, that sometimes the best way to pay attention to country is to keep your mouth shut, open your eyes and just listen.

The sun’s rise and the sun’s retreat bookend our days with awe.

The beach there was unspoiled, untamed, brimming with wildlife. We’d park our cars and run into the black sea, diving and swirling under the moon, watching a silvery, sparkling ribbon of phosphorescence trail behind our limbs. The tiny little sea creatures that absorbed the light of the sun were stirred up by our thrashing; we were streaming sequin

One witness reported being able to read on deck at night, due to the bright white light of the sea, ‘like that from molten iron’.

seemed magical. These living lights became a kind of symbol of joy and abandon for me, and I tried to find more ways to experience them and companions who would love them as much as I did.

The authors of the study, Masaki Kobayashi, Daisuke Kikuchi and Hitoshi Okamura, concluded that we all ‘directly and rhythmically’ emit light: ‘The human body literally glimmers. The intensity of the light emitted by the body is 1000 times lower than the sensitivity of our naked eyes.’

What can be done to nurture our inner lights, and guard them as jealously as an Olympian does a burning torch?

Studies of living light proliferated, and attempts were made to measure and harness bioluminescence.