Table of Contents
One of my favorite books, which helped me lot to shape my life is “The Biology of Belief” by Bruce H. Lipton. The content in this book is life-changing, backed by scientific facts & research. Major themes of The Biology of Belief—the genes we inherit from our mothers and our fathers are not our fate! Your genes do not dictate your life and you can change your life when you change your beliefs.
Just like a single cell, the character of our lives is determined not by our genes but by our responses to the environmental signals that propel life. “A cell is a machine for turning experience into biology.” (Dobbs 2013)
During his research, he was instantly energized because he realized that there was a science-based path that would take him from his job as a perennial “victim” to his new job as the “co-creator” of his destiny. After reading this book, I was also having the same feeling.
The writer vividly remembers the large block print headlines that filled the front page on that memorable day in 1953: “Secret of Life Discovered.” Body cells teach us not only about the mechanisms of life but also how to live rich, full lives. Using these cell communities as role models, the conclusion is that we are not victims of our genes, but masters of our fates, able to create lives overflowing with peace, happiness, and love.
Every time a drug is introduced into the body to correct function A, it inevitably throws off function B, C, or D. It is not gene-directed hormones and neurotransmitters that control our bodies and our minds; our beliefs control our bodies and our minds, and thus our lives . . . Oh ye of little belief!
Are you ready to consider an alternate reality to that provided by the medical model—a reality in which the human body is not simply a biochemical machine? Are you ready to use your subconscious and conscious minds to create a life overflowing with health, happiness, and love without the aid of genetic engineers and without addicting yourself to drugs? There is nothing to buy, and there are no policies to take out. It is just a matter of temporarily suspending the archaic beliefs you have acquired from the scientific and media establishments so you can consider the exciting new awareness offered by leading-edge science.
Ironically, in recent decades, we have been taught to wage war against microorganisms with everything from antibacterial soap to antibiotics. But that simplistic message ignores the fact that many bacteria are essential to our health. The classic example of how humans get help from microorganisms is the bacteria in our digestive system, which are essential to our survival.
The bacteria in our stomach and intestinal tract help digest food and also enable the absorption of life-sustaining vitamins. This microbe-human cooperation is the reason that the rampant use of antibiotics is detrimental to our survival. Antibiotics are indiscriminate killers; they kill bacteria that are required for our survival as efficiently as they kill harmful bacteria.
Confusion occurs when the media repeatedly distort the meaning of two words: correlation and causation. It’s one thing to be linked to a disease; it’s quite another to cause a disease, which implies a directing, controlling action. If I show you my keys and say that a particular key “controls” my car, you at first might think that makes sense because you know you need that key to turn on the ignition. But does the key actually “control” the car? If it did, you couldn’t leave the key in the car alone because it might just borrow your car for a joy ride when you are not paying attention. In truth, the key is “correlated” with the control of the car; the person who turns the key actually controls the car. Specific genes are correlated with an organism’s behavior and characteristics.
But these genes are not activated until something triggers them. What activates genes? The answer was elegantly spelled out in 1990 in a paper entitled Metaphors and the Role of Genes and Development by H. F. Nijhout. (Nijhout 1990) Nijhout presents evidence that the notion that genes control biology has been so frequently repeated for such a long period of time that scientists have forgotten it is a hypothesis, not a truth. In reality, the idea that genes control biology is a supposition, which has never been proven and, in fact, has been undermined by the latest scientific research. Genetic control argues Nijhout, has become a metaphor in our society. We want to believe that genetic engineers are the new medical magicians who can cure diseases and while they’re at it create more Einsteins and Mozarts as well. But the metaphor does not equate with scientific truth. Nijhout summarizes the truth: “When a gene product is needed, a signal from its environment, not an emergent property of the gene itself, activates expression of that gene.” In other words, when it comes to genetic control, “It’s the environment, stupid.”
We are the drivers of our own biology, just as I am the driver of this word-processing program. We have the ability to edit the data we enter into our biocomputers, just as surely as I can choose the words I type. When we understand how IMPs control biology, we become masters of our fate, not victims of our genes.
Power of Subconscious Mind & Its connection with Beliefs
When it comes to sheer neurological processing abilities, the subconscious mind is more than a million times more powerful than the conscious mind.
If the desires of the conscious mind conflict with the programs in the subconscious mind, which “mind” do you think will win out? You can repeat the positive affirmation that you are lovable over and over or that your cancer tumor will shrink. But if, as a child, you repeatedly heard that you were worthless and sickly, those messages programmed in your subconscious mind will undermine your best conscious efforts to change your life. Remember how quickly your last New Year’s resolution to eat less food fell by the wayside as the aroma of the baking turkey dissolved your resolve?
I believe the greatest problem we face is that we think we are running our lives with the wishes, desires, and aspirations created by our conscious mind. When we struggle or fail to obtain our goals, we are generally led to conclude that we are victims of outside forces preventing us from reaching our destination. However, neuroscience has now established that the conscious mind runs the show, at best, only about 5 percent of the time. It turns out that the programs acquired by the subconscious mind shape 95 percent or more of our life experiences. (Szegedy-Maszak 2005)
Endowed with the ability to be self-reflective, the self-conscious mind is extremely powerful. It can observe any programmed behavior we are engaged in, evaluate the behavior, and consciously decide to change the program. We can actively choose how to respond to most environmental signals and whether we even want to respond at all. The conscious mind’s capacity to override the subconscious mind’s pre-programmed behaviors is the foundation of free will.
The subconscious mind is our “autopilot”; the conscious mind is our manual control. The subconscious mind, the most powerful information processor known, specifically observes both the surrounding world and the body’s internal awareness, reads the environmental cues and immediately engages in previously acquired (learned) behaviors—all without the help, supervision, or even awareness of the conscious mind. The two minds make a dynamic duo.
Operating together, the conscious mind can use its resources to focus on some specific point, such as the party you are going to on Friday night. Simultaneously, your subconscious mind can be safely pushing the lawn mower around and successfully not cutting off your foot or running over the cat—even though you are not consciously paying attention to mowing the lawn. Subconscious programming takes over the moment your conscious mind is not paying attention.
Learning how to harness your mind to promote growth is the secret of life, which is why I called this book The Biology of Belief. Of course, the secret of life is not a secret at all. Teachers like Buddha and Jesus have been telling us the same story for millennia. Now science is pointing in the same direction. It is not our genes but our beliefs that control our lives . . . Oh ye of little belief!
“Your beliefs become your thoughts Your thoughts become your words Your words become your actions Your actions become your habits Your habits become your values Your values become your destiny” – Gandhiji
Consider it this way: what if we had conscious parents and teachers who served as wonderful life models, always engaging in humane and win-win relations with everyone in the community? If our subconscious mind were programmed with such healthy behaviors, we could be totally successful in our lives without ever being conscious!
The learned behaviors and beliefs acquired from other people, such as parents, peers, and teachers, may not support the goals or desires of our conscious mind.
We can improve the start in life for our children and their children
Young children carefully observe their environment and download the worldly wisdom offered by parents directly into their subconscious memory. As a result, their parents’ behavior and beliefs become their own.
In humans as well, the fundamental behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes we observe in our parents become “hardwired” as synaptic pathways in our subconscious minds. Once programmed into the subconscious mind, they control our biology for the rest of our lives . . . or at least until we make the effort to reprogram them.
By the time children reach adolescence, their subconscious minds are chock-full of information that ranges from the knowledge of how to walk to the “knowledge” they will never amount to anything or the knowledge, fostered by loving parents, that they can do anything they set out to do.
For adoptive and non-adoptive parents alike, the message is clear: Your children’s genes reflect only their potential, not their destiny. It is up to you to provide the environment that allows them to develop to their highest potential.
Here is a challenge for you. Let go of unfounded fears and take care not to implant unnecessary fears and limiting beliefs in your children’s subconscious minds. Most of all, do not accept the fatalistic message of genetic determinism. You can help your children reach their potential and you can change your personal life. Your genes are not responsible for your stuckness in life.
You cannot be “guilty” of bad parental behavior if you had no awareness or understanding of the implications of that behavior on your child’s development.
