- project name : ONE LIGHT
- project number: CIR_2506
- project start: may 2023
- project manager: Katarzyna Jelenska, Lothar Hartmann
Symbolic Activism, Neuroethics, and the Ripple Effect of Kindness
A man was placed in a completely lightproof room – absolute darkness, not a single ray of light, no electromagnetic interference from outside.
What you see here is no ordinary photo.
This picture was taken over a period of two hours using a special long exposure.
What appears is not ambient light – it is the light of the person himself.
The bright areas show light emitted by so-called biophotons – ultra-fine light quanta that our body, especially our DNA, constantly emits.
Our cells do not only communicate chemically or electrically – they also do so via light.
We are, in the truest sense of the word, light beings.
- Micah Dank
(revised & expanded by Rudolf Wagner)
Scientific explanation:
The term biophotons comes from the research of Prof. Fritz-Albert Popp.
He discovered that living cells emit a weak light radiation in the ultraviolet range – a million times weaker light than what the eye can see.
This light emission is not a by-product, but a targeted exchange of information within and between cells.
Particularly exciting:
These photons appear to be coherent, i.e. ordered like a laser – which indicates a kind of “light communication”.
Our DNA plays a central role in this, as it not only emits light, but is also able to store light and emit it again.
In absolute darkness and over a long exposure time, this faint light can be made visible – as in your picture.
It is not a trick, but a fascinating insight into the energetic nature of life.
So we are not just matter – we are also energy, frequency and light.
Abstract
The One Light campaign, founded by Austrian artist and photographer Caina Cadie, proposes a scalable, human-centered intervention rooted in the symbolic act of offering light to others. Positioned at the confluence of psychology, consciousness studies, communication science, and global governance, the campaign invites individuals to be a “light” for someone else—initiating a ripple effect of kindness, support, and social healing. This paper formulates One Light as a CIRAS-endorsed research protocol with measurable psychological, neurobiological, and systemic impacts. Drawing on empirical findings from social psychology and systems theory, we develop a hypothesis: that small symbolic acts, grounded in intentionality and distributed through culturally adaptive frameworks, can catalyze profound social coherence and long-term community resilience. We outline the campaign’s scientific basis, CIRAS center integration, field strategies, and potential to reprogram collective affect and social architecture.
1. Introduction: Light as Symbol, Signal, and Social Function
The act of offering light both literally and metaphorically has transcultural, neurobiological, and psychosocial implications. The One Light campaign positions each human being as a potential vector of positive change: “Every person has the potential to be One Light for another person.” This framing reactivates ancient wisdom (e.g., “let your light shine”) with neuroscientific credibility, mobilizing visual symbols as psychosocial interventions. Caina Cadie’s installation art and online framework (see: cainacadie.world) demonstrate the visual impact of a single light in darkness, which becomes the core metaphor for the campaign’s mission: to inspire one act of meaningful kindness that will multiply across time and space.
2. Theoretical Framework and Background
2.1 Symbolic Action and Social Cognition
Symbolic gestures such as lighting a candle or placing a light in a window create semantic associations in the brain’s mirror neuron system. These acts carry encoded meanings: presence, support, compassion, resistance, or mourning. According to symbolic interactionism and affective neuroscience, these low-effort signals can alter emotional states, synchronize community affect, and scaffold shared meaning (Gibbs, 2014; Iacoboni, 2009).
2.2 The Ripple Effect of Kindness
Multiple studies in prosocial psychology support the “helper’s high” and “contagious generosity” effects:
- A 2005 study in Journal of Social Psychology found a significant increase in happiness and life satisfaction in subjects who performed acts of kindness for seven consecutive days.
- A 2020 study published in PNAS showed that witnessing acts of kindness increased the likelihood of observers performing similar acts within 24 hours (Zaki & Cikara, 2020).
These studies validate the ripple model: an initial act not only affects its recipient but creates a feedback loop that extends through networks of social relations.
3. CIRAS Research Objectives
As an endorsed CIRAS campaign, One Light will pursue the following scientific goals between 2025–2030:
- To measure psychological benefits (e.g., stress reduction, meaning perception, resilience) from participation in symbolic kindness rituals.
- To evaluate behavioral transmission effects, i.e., how one small act catalyzes subsequent actions in social networks.
- To quantify media virality and symbolic literacy, tracking the aesthetic and semiotic coherence of One Light in digital and physical environments.
- To assess neurological coherence through biometrics such as heart-rate variability (HRV), EEG, and oxytocin modulation in participants.
- To develop a model for civic integration, e.g., embedding One Light rituals in public spaces, educational systems, and post-crisis response.
4. Methodology
4.1 Multimodal Research Design
This initiative will be studied through a convergent methodology combining:
- Neurophenomenology: EEG and HRV in controlled settings during symbolic light rituals.
- Sociometric Tracking: Field mapping of chain-reactions in kindness behavior post-intervention.
- AI-Assisted Symbol Propagation Analysis: Using semantic recognition tools to evaluate One Light’s digital reach and emotional resonance.
- Participatory Action Research (PAR): Localized co-design of One Light activities with communities in post-crisis, educational, or low-trust environments.
4.2 Study Phases
- Phase I (2025–2026): Pilot studies in Vienna, Nairobi, and Sao Paulo.
- Phase II (2026–2028): Controlled international trials with CIRAS universities.
- Phase III (2028–2030): Public adoption toolkit development and integration with local governance or health systems.
5. Societal Impacts and Use Cases
5.1 Civic Healing and Collective Mourning
One Light can be deployed in response to trauma (natural disasters, political violence) as a ritual of shared grief and hope. Lights in public squares or homes can symbolize solidarity and recommitment to peace.
5.2 Education and Youth Resilience
Classrooms using One Light-inspired daily reflections (e.g., “Who was your One Light today?”) show increased emotional intelligence and peer empathy (pilot results from 2024 Austrian school trials, unpublished).
5.3 Planetary Solidarity Events
Thematic expansions like One Light for Oceans and One Light for Science (see: Cainacadie.world) link personal kindness to planetary care turning awareness into ecological activism.
6. Integration Across CIRAS Centers
| CIRAS Center | Research/Implementation Role |
|---|---|
| Spirituality | Design symbolic rituals and reflective practices |
| Health | Track neurobiological and emotional impacts |
| Media | Maintain symbolic integrity across platforms |
| Justice | Develop ethical guidelines for non-exploitative symbol use |
| Education | Implement curriculum modules on kindness |
| Relations | Facilitate global interfaith and intercultural engagement |
| Governance | Develop municipal/civic ritual applications (e.g., urban lighting projects) |
| Arts | Commission installations and interpretive storytelling |
7. Limitations and Ethical Considerations
- Symbol Fatigue: Overuse without substance may lead to aesthetic saturation. → Mitigate through grounded community engagement and real-time feedback loops.
- Commodification Risk: Market exploitation may dilute spiritual intent. → CIRAS Media Center to hold open-use licenses and ethical branding controls.
- Measurement Challenges: Emotional and spiritual benefits are often qualitative. → Use triangulated data with subjective and biometric components.
8. Conclusion: One Light as Meta-Protocol for Collective Coherence
The “One Light campaign” transcends its artistic origins to become a replicable model for human and planetary coherence. Its simplicity is its strength: one act, one symbol, one ripple amplified across time and space. By integrating this symbolic activism into CIRAS’s transdisciplinary infrastructure, we propose a new class of research model meta-symbolic intervention protocols that blend neuroscience, aesthetics, civic design, and systems theory to co-create a more compassionate, resilient world.