The Biology of Belief:
East West Interview With Bruce Lipton

New scientific discoveries about the biochemical effects of the brain's functioning show that all cells of our bodies are affected by our thoughts. Dr. Bruce Lipton, a renowned cell biologist and author of The Biology of Belief, uses straightforward language, illustrations, and humor to demonstrate how this new science is revolutionizing our understanding of mind and matter and the profound effects it has on our lives. East West Bookshop, longtime OPEN EXCHANGE lister, presents Dr. Lipton at Unity Palo Alto in September. Please see our Conferences category for details. Our thanks to interviewer Susanne Spitzer.

SS: How are the cells of our bodies affected by our thoughts?
BL: Every cell is a sentient being. When cells come together in a community, which is what the nature of the human body is, the concept of community entails an importance about individual roles. Like humans, when cells join a community, they follow a leadership or a destination.

When humans come together in a community, a person defers his individual action to a higher voice, the voice of the community. When cells live in a community, their activities in general are not so much under their own direction as they are under a "central voice." The central voice in humans is the mind.

This is relevant because psychiatrists tell us that 70% or more of our thoughts are negative and redundant. Those thoughts are being broadcast to the community of 50 trillion cells. The cells, like citizens in a country, defer to that leadership.

Cells have a built-in imperative to live. Our thoughts and beliefs can provide health, if they are in harmony, or disease, by inappropriately treating our community of cells in a way that's out of harmony with life.

SS: You say that the true brain of the operation of a cell isn't the nucleus; it's the cellular membrane.
BL: Yes. If you remove the nucleus, the cell still survives, some cells can live for two or more months without genes. If there is no DNA in that cell, what is in charge of running that cell?

SS: That's when you say we're much less bound by our DNA than we imagine.
BL: Absolutely. We acquired that belief because it was a perception that was formulated around the 1900's. Science changes as we evolve and start to consider other options.

DNA is a linear blueprint that makes the building blocks of our bodies, the proteins. The proteins determine the character and quality of that building. So the genes we are carrying are the templates to make all the appropriate building blocks that make our lives.

SS: Can our perceptions affect our DNA?
BL: Yes. There's new understanding regarding mutations of the DNA, which are alterations of the blueprints. When an organism finds itself under stress, there's a built-in mechanism in the cells to try to recognize the source of the stress at the level of the cell, and then alter that function or structure by modifying the genes.

The first paper to really come out with this information shocked the scientific world in 1988. It was in the journal Nature. Just recently, there was new research where mutants were generated. Genetically, the offspring were mutated in both genes for that trait, meaning there was no normal gene in the system. Yet, they found a normal gene in 10% of that population. The numbers that reverted back to normal were too high to say that was just an accident. There was something changing the heredity, and there were no genes to do it.

SS: You say we'll come together as a global community.
BL: We're at this very interesting juncture right now, where the evolution of civilization, which is self-similar to the evolution of animals, is at a turning point.

There's a concept in healing known as spontaneous remission. I believe that as the planet looks like it's going to the brink, and it really is in a very bad situation, that a change of belief on the part of the human population will cause a spontaneous remission, and return the planet back to the garden.