Just a note on this.

The use of the ambient light channel (or alt diffuse, etc.) to self-light an object is the same in Poser 8 as in Poser 7 and Pro. It is this, not IDL, that makes the object visible regardless of lights in the scene.

The difference when you use Indirect Lighting is that the self-lit object is now also a scene light source that illuminates nearby objects, as in the Ralphling scene.

"If I were a shadow, I know I wouldn't like to be half of what I should be."
Mr Otsuka, the old black tomcat in Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)