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Dappled colourful sunlight filtering though stained glass windows and flickering candlelight may spring to mind when thinking of churches.

But one cathedral in France has got a more hi-tech solution to creating an inspiring space.

Worshippers visiting Saint-Eustache cathedral in Paris are being treated to a laser light show created by using their smartphones. 

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Let there be light! Worshippers visiting Saint-Eustache cathedral in Paris are being treated to a laser light show created by using their smartphones

The lighting changes in response to text messages sent from people's smartphones, to a number used by the cathedral.

Artist Filipe Vilas-Boas created the installation, Shooting Thoughts, in the cathedral, where the laser beams create what looks like a constellation of stars as well as a large cross.

'People generate a constellation of stars by sending their thoughts with a mobile device,' he explains in a blogpost.

Stunning cathedral filled with smartphone-powered laser beams

Sign of the cross: The lighting changes in response to text messages sent from people's smartphones, to a number used by the cathedral. Here, beams of light create a giant cross on the building's vaulted celing

He thinks that by looking up, worshippers at Saint-Eustache cathedral in Paris (shown on the map)  are encouraged to think and to 'communicate with heaven'

Seeing stars: Artist Filipe Vilas-Boas created the installation, Shooting Thoughts, in the cathedral, where the laser beams create what looks like a constellation of stars

'Connected to lasers, each thought becomes a shooting star that reaches its galaxy by using all the possible paths the architecture allows.'

The artist says that the 'lines' and 'spots' of light resemble caught spirits being called to heaven.

He thinks that by looking up, worshippers are encouraged to think and to 'communicate with heaven'.

The beams use the cathedral's Gothic architecture as pathways before reaching the centre of the vaulted ceiling to form a cross.

Mr Vilas-Boas says: 'The pillars of Saint-Eustache Church are used as launch stations that carry the star to its final destination on the ceiling of the church via the arches and vaults.

'Like all of us, each star finds its place at its own speed with its individual trajectory.'

The installation was co-commissioned by Art, Culture et Foi and Nuit Blanche Paris. Mr Vilas-Boas worked with Laurent François, Laser Movement, Kiss the Future and Les Agentspéciaux to create the technical aspects of the work of art, as well as photographers Douglas Cabel, Louis Robiche and Frédéric Lesage to record it. 

Upon reflection: It's not everyday that people lie on the floor of a cathedral, but here a group of visitors so just that to take in the light show illuminating the vast vaulted ceiling

A spiritual journey: Mr Vilas-Boas says: 'The pillars of Saint-Eustache Church (pictured) are used as launch stations that carry the star to its final destination on the ceiling of the church via the arches and vaults,