How Your Beliefs Control Your Biology

by Bruce H. Lipton

Dr. Bruce Lipton is a cellular biologist whose breakthrough research, revealing how our thoughts affect every one of the cells in our bodies, made him a pioneer in what is known as the “new biology.” He is the author of The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles. Most of the following article is excerpted from a longer 2006 presentation, entitled The Wisdom of Your Cells, which is available in its entirety as an audio listening course from East West.
Dr. Lipton is a thoroughly engaging speaker, who uses humor and everyday examples to show how this new science is bringing to light the link between mind and matter, and beyond that our link to consciousness itself.

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Conventional physics sees the human body as a machine made of atoms and molecules, while quantum physics reveals that underneath that apparent structure there is nothing other than energy. That means we are energy beings interacting with everything else in the entire energy field. The wholeness of it is the single true reality. In trying to understand a person’s health, for example, if you only focus on physical traits, you miss the influence of surrounding energy fields. If you only focus on the person’s body, you miss the impact that environment plays in shaping that body.

Why this “wholeness” is relevant in our lives goes back to a quote by Einstein: “The field is the sole governing agency of the particle.” This dictum provides us with insight as to how the “field” created by our thoughts affects the “particles” that we physically perceive as our world and life experiences.

To understand how the field works, we start with the fact that we are made of cells. Cells are individual living organisms made from protein building blocks. There are over 100,000 different kinds of proteins, which are molecules with complex shapes that behave like gears that engage with each other. Some of these coupled- protein gears create respiration, some provide digestion, others contract muscles, etc. The blueprints for these gears are the genes. When the cell needs to make gears for a particular function, it selects the appropriate blueprint from the DNA, copies it and uses the copy as a template to build the cell’s protein.

Life is movement. In cr eating their behaviors, proteins change shape and move. An environmental signal, however, is need ed for this to occur, and as the protein responds, its movement is harnessed by the cell to do work.

Cells respond to a massive variety of signals using protein switches: over 100,000 switches per cell built into its membrane. These protein switches are fundamental units of perception. They read environmental conditions and adjust the biology to meet the need required. This becomes very profound when we own that perception controls behavior, for it is how we perceive the world that controls our lives. If our perceptions are accurate, the opportunity for survival is great. But if we are programmed with misperceptions, and we read the environment incorrectly, we will inappropriately engage our responses. Consider an anorexic person looking into a mirror. While we may see that person as dangerously thin, the anorexic perceives himself or herself to be large and fat. Interpreting that signal, the brain activates the body to lose more weight. Misreading the cues, in this case, can lead to death. The significance is clear: When our perceptions are inaccurate, our behaviors are no longer synchronized to support our survival.

The “new biology” reveals that perception also controls the read-out of our genes. It is how we see life that determines which genes will be activated to provide for survival. By sending a faulty signal, we are liable to subvert the health of our biology by incorrect gene activation, causing disease and dysfunction. Contrary to what many believe, we are not so much the victims of our genes as we are the creator of our lives, based upon our perception of reality. The creation we experience is an expression of how our perceptions control our behavior and our genes.

Whether we survive to a ripe old age is influenced in part on the growth mechanisms that control the replacement of billions of cells we continuously lose to normal attrition. Our survival also depends on a completely different set of mechanisms: those we use for protection. These allocate energy to support behaviors that sustain us in threatening situations. When we engage them, however, the body conserves its other reserves by shutting down our growth mechanisms.

Nature designed us to use protection behaviors only in acute responses like running from a saber tooth tiger. But if we maintain protection too long, the shutting down of growth compromises our survival. The more we live in fear, the more we allocate energy for protection, and the more we shut down life-conserving growth. In the world today, protection response accounts for a greater percentage of our life experience. Most of us live with high levels of stress, which debilitates our biology by interfering with growth. Simple point: cells cannot be in growth and protection at the same time.

Additionally, we have two different protection systems. The immune system deals with internal threats like viruses, bacteria, parasites or cancer cells. The adrenal system responds to exterior threats like a poisonous snake or a mugger by secreting stress hormones that engage a protection response. These hormones constrict the blood vessels in the gut, forcing blood to the arms and legs where it nourishes fight or flight behavior. Growth functions are thus inhibited because of lack of bloodborne nutrients. Stress hormones also shut off the immune system to conserve energy. The reason is obvious:

If chased by a lion, you do not put your energy into fighting off a bacterial infection; you put it into running.

Everyday stresses repress the normal functions of both the growth and immune systems. With enough stress, we reach a point where we do not replace the number of cells we lose, and this leads to organ and tissue dysfunction, the primary cause of disease. Reduced immune activity also opens us up to attack by normally repressed infectious agents. Adding insult to injury, stress also constricts the flow of blood in the forebrain, sending it instead to nourish the hindbrain’s high-speed reflex center, which controls the behavior used in stressful situations. Since the forebrain is where our consciousness and intelligence reside, shutting down its function in stress causes us to be less intelligent. Over time, chronic stress leads to disastrous effects.

Through an understanding of how our perceptions (thoughts and beliefs) influence our physical and behavioral character, we are given valuable insights into how we control our biology, and how we can encourage growth by overcoming the debilitating impact of our fearful perceptions. After all, it’s a matter of life and death.