Dr. Bruce Lipton

I just discovered this book, The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles.

It's written by Dr. Bruce Lipton and I remember how struck I was by his teachings back in the late 1990's. I went to a couple of his presentations and used some of his materials in one of the psychology classes I taught.

Dr. Bruce Lipton taught medical students at the University of Wisconsin and was a research scientist at Stanford University School of Medicine when his experiences in molecular biology catapulted him into a spiritual transformation.

When I last saw him in 2001 he was discussing the Human Genome Project and how scientists had discovered there aren't nearly as many different genes as they originally thought they were going to find. This indicates that there is something else that gives humans such complexity and diversity. He of course, went on to educate us on what that something else is.

He talked about understanding the important difference between correlation and causation and purported that although genes are correlated with our biology they do not cause anything. He revealed scientific findings that suggest that our beliefs can rewrite our genetic code and gave a convincing scientific breakdown of our biology and physiological functions that results in various conclusions:

Conclusion # 1 Perception controls our behavior.

Conclusion # 2 Perception controls our genes.

Conclusion # 3 Perception "rewrites" genetic codes

And of course it's our beliefs that control our perceptions so the end result of all this information is that we are not controlled by, nor are we victims of our genes but rather we are controlled by, and are victims of our perceptions of our environment. In that our beliefs control our perceptions, it is ultimately our beliefs that control our genes.

He discussed the aging process and what the baby boomer generation was taught in high school physiology, that the brain can not make new cells. Following this train of thought, brain cells just keep dying off the older we get and we have less and less... Of course, science now knows that this is complete bunk. In fact, we do keep making new brain cells but the problem is, that if we don't use the new brain cells they degenerate. We have to develop them and network with them just like we did as babies and young children. Alzheimer's is caused from lack of the use of the brain, mostly from lack of social contact and living an interesting life. Well, this little piece on Alzheimer's has me thinking now, as my 84 year old mother has taken this path. It just so happens that she certainly does suffer from both of these maladies and they were issues in her life before the advent Alzheimer's.

Another interesting part of his lecture was about how we use our genes for two functions, growth & reproduction, and protection. Survival equals growth divided by protection. He explained how we can't be fearful and also grow at the same time. When all our energies are going to protect ourselves due to fear, we stop growing and most importantly, we stop loving.

He shared all this great stuff about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and the adrenal system, and how when we go into a fight or flight response to protect ourselves from something we fear, the sympathetic nervous system is activated. This in turn suppresses the immune system which shuts down first to give full force to the adrenal system. This process pertains to emotional, psychological, and physical fear, whatever kind of stress, it makes no difference. We all know how stress isn't healthy for us. We also become less intelligent when we are under stress.

An interesting note, going back to the survival issue (survival equals growth divided by protection)--in a safe, loving environment we acquire more intelligence and express more creativity. Our fore brains grow bigger. Whereas, in a stressful, fearful environment we enhance our protection by building up body muscle and hind brain growth.

I enjoyed the part where half of the audience put on a set of special glasses and the other half of the audience put on a different set of special glasses. While looking at the overhead half of us perceived a "world" of fear and hate, something to protect ourselves against. The other half of us perceived a beautiful "world" of love. When we took off our glasses we saw that both "worlds" were there simultaneously (This reminded me of Abraham's contrast). It's ALL always there, the "good" and the "bad", our likes and dislikes, what we want and don't want. It's what we choose to look at. It's all a matter of perception, which comes from our beliefs about the world, ourselves, each other.