The Biology of belief
Introduction
I find it fascinating to reflect back and imagine the original primordial soup (Note 1) that occurred about 4 billion years ago which evolved from the almighty upheavals that gave birth to the Universe.
Although the early temperature was hostile to life, at 300 degrees Celsius, early forms of microbes have been discovered existing without oxygen in similar conditions within the heart of a volcano. (Note 2).
Therein a continuous migration amongst encoded lifeless forms, including viruses, banded together as determined by natural selection. That then became intelligent cells reliant on the DNA (Note 3) building blocks that underpin what make up life today. You might refer to this process as a form of evolved intelligent design or creation or biological evolution, (whichever term you feel best or most comfortable to describe it) arising effortlessly over many billions of years to our present wondrous life world of today.
To reiterate, before that momentous crossover into self-consciousness, in much earlier periods a series of seismic events transformed our living planet to create nature’s vision splendor. The timing of those massive upheavals was necessarily precise to change our planetary environment to enable life’s previous abundant first single cell life to evolve into the multi celled life complexity we see today; as our planet temporarily appearing like Jupiter – totally wrapped in thick ice –then thawed to cause water to carve out the new landscape warmed by immense erupting volcanoes. Miraculously the planetary environment reached a state of equilibrium to give birth to the first evolved multi cell creatures which are evident today in the fossilized imprints- as if just recently left in dried mud- in the thin layers of ancient rocks in the remote areas of what is known as the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. Note 4
So we might loosely associate that development as a continuous evolved intelligent transition or creation if you will.
Astrophysics Jesuit George Coyne who was the Director of the Vatican Observatory since 1978 explores these ideas for the universe in a similar way: A theologian already poses the concept of god’s continuous creation with which to explore the implications of modern science for religious belief. God is working with the universe, the universe has a certain vitality of its own like a child does, and it has the ability to respond to words of endearment and encouragement.
Looking backwards in time my mind struggles to imagine how those first awakenings of self-consciousness were played out in humanity’s journey of discovery. I rather think those first early insights will remain hidden forever in our oral history, in the evolving stories of dance, in the lyrical chants of the ancients or in the wondrous dreamland scenes carved on rock walls up to 60,000 years ago. Elkhonon Goldberg in ‘The Executive Brain’ suggests religious ideas about this time may have first emerged as we struggled to separate the thoughts we have about others and are separate to those we think about. He suggests such self-memories about a deceased person may have been attributed to the current spirit of that deceased person as it became a taboo custom to speak of the dead.
These insights into our past are only made possible by the evolution of our self-consciousness which enables us to make sense of such things; to ponder the sequential events needed for one single cell to become the 50 trillion estimated to make up the human body. The mechanism to enable enjoyment of our enhanced understanding is in the architecture of our frontal lobes which allow us to retrieve information stored in the older ‘limbic’ areas of the brain for dynamic processing in the frontal lobes area coupled with repositories of self-awareness. Elhanan Goldberg in ‘The Executive Brain’
Interestingly just as these frontal lobes are our most recently evolved brain area they remain by far the most vulnerable or fragile to trauma and the onslaught of dementia which exhibits those frightening losses of cognitive memory ability. It is not that memory is lost in dementia patients but rather the circuitry connections to memory are either damaged or severed, - Elhanan Goldberg ‘The Executive Brain’.
Self-consciousness is thought to be only evident in humans and maybe in other highly developed life forms albeit such views continue to be debated and constrained by a lack of any known developed animal language.
Given our newly acquired self-consciousness- an insatiable curiosity combined with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge it is hardly surprising we have complex ever changing belief systems.
But with the onset of a scientific age of new discoveries to contradict many of the rigidly held religious ‘beliefs’ scientists became very wary of making any references to ‘beliefs’ in scientific discourses. They prefer to talk about concepts which were to be only to be accepted as science after stringent evidentiary validation. Materialism which manifested as genetic determinism erroneously took hold.
Book Review- The Biology of Belief
The title of Bruce H Lipton’s (Ph.D.) book ‘The Biology of Belief’ aroused my interest- no doubt as was the author’s intention to engender for him a wider reader’s audience.
The author’s first watershed moment is vividly described in the Prologue when he was lecturing medical students in the Caribbean
‘I had resigned my tenured position at the University of Wisconsin’s School of medicine and was teaching at an offshore medical school in the Caribbean. Because the school was so far out of the academic mainstream, I started thinking outside the rigid parameters of belief that prevail in conventional academia. Far from ivory towers, isolated on an emerald island in the deep azure Caribbean Sea, I experienced a scientific epiphany that shattered my beliefs about the nature of life.
My Life changing moment occurred while I was reviewing research on the mechanisms by which cells control their physiology and behavior. Suddenly I realized that a cell’s life is controlled by the physical and energetic environment and not by its genes. Genes are simply molecular blueprints used in the construction of cells, tissues, and organs. The environment serves as a ‘contractor’ who reads and engages those genetic blueprints and is ultimately responsible for the character of a single cells ‘awareness ‘of the environment, not its genes that sets into motion the mechanisms of life.
His book is an amalgam of the next 20 years of research and experience which I will attempt to engage sufficient portions so that one can make sense of the nature of his findings.
Cells as Miniature Humans
He introduces us to the idea that every cell in our body – and there are roughly 50 trillion of them – is a smart cell capable of fulfilling all of the known bodily functions we attribute to our mind and body as a whole. This intelligence is resident in the cell membrane and reacts to its physiology through controlling proteins able to override the genetically encoded DNA resident in the cell nucleus. That is to say that although the DNA which is resident in the cell nuclei does determine our preprogrammed genetic characteristics their operation can be turned off and on by the controlling proteins within the cells membrane environment. Hence the author contends our ‘belief systems’ are instrumental in the control of our biological functioning rather than by genetic determinants. Lipton explains the trend scientifically towards genetic determinism was adopted since the discovery of genes provided the final missing link to show how Darwin’s species adaptations or changes were all transferred genetically into each new evolved generation.
An analogy to help explain the Magical Cell membrane
Lipton uses the analogy of the test pattern appearing on old TV sets. Those of us old enough to remember will recall how a test pattern appeared on our TV sets once the day’s program’s came to closures traditionally after midnight.
‘Think of the pattern of the test screen as the pattern encoded by a given gene, say the one for brown eyes. The dials and switches, TV fine –tune the test screen by allowing you to turn it on or off and modulate a number of characteristics , including color, hue, contrast, brightness, vertical and horizontal holds .By adjusting the dials, you can alter the appearance of the test pattern on the screen, while not actually changing the original broadcast pattern. This is the role of the regulatory proteins.
Waltzed through the ‘Magical Membrane’ and on to ‘The New physics; Planting both feet on thin Air” Lipton waltzes his readers through chapters entitled ‘Magical Membrane’, and on to ‘The New Physics”: Planting both feet firmly on thin Air’; to introduce the dual wave -particle physics theory to understand how energy underpins his biological beliefs and to persuade us more research is needed into the fields of energy waves rather than what is currently disproportionately devoted to genes. The question one skeptic might immediately ask is would this approach risk ‘throwing the baby out with the bathwater’ since it would signal a retreat away from genealogy which forms the mainstay applications of westernized based prescriptions. On a more general note however I think few would argue, not least of which, the inhabitants of developing nations, to say modern medical advances have ensured improved longevity and help enormously to maintain improved healthy sustainable lives. A visit to any impoverished nation reveals the extent to which provision of improved medical and mental health facilities with an array of prescription drugs has a beneficial improvement in the overall wellbeing of the population.
However I do not think the author risks ‘throwing out the baby out with the bathwater’ but I rather think the question might well be asked in reverse, ‘has the westernized approach become guilty of putting too much faith in the genealogy? , or put another way ‘putting too many of its research dollars into one basket?’ As Lipton reminds us ever since Darwin’s species adaptations or changes were thought to be conveniently verified via the modus operandi of genetically transferred information within the DNA of the cell nucleus into each new evolved generation, scientists have assumed this must represent the crucial frontier area to find future cures for such things as cancers and incurable disorders. Whilst it is true to say the environment was accepted as playing a pivotal role in outcomes this was more generally attributed to the overall attitude of the mind and reactions to external stimuli rather than thought be equally present in the individual cell intelligence as suggested by Lipton.
The manufacturers and distributors of drugs found a powerful advocate in money motivation to direct disproportionate research efforts into the genealogy pool and away from other forms of research which may be far less drug dependent and be more successful without the dreaded side effects of prescription medicine.
Maybe we are at the crossroads where a more multi-disciplinary approach offers the best future opportunities. We can be optimistic that so-called reliance in genetic determinism is almost dead in the water.
Positive thoughts and a conclusion
I think I am a positivist by nature but as the book moves into the realm of a personal empowerment treatise for living and loving, for me, I think his views are more intuitively driven than as a logical progression from earlier chapters. My point is a personal one and does not detract from the thrust of his inspirational message of self-empowerment which will be met joyously by many less skeptical readers than me - particularly as he shares his own personal journey in tandem with his fascinating scientific treatise.
The author’s message is of hope and joy with an emphasis that nurturing children is more important than their genealogy and that we can influence our outcomes by positive thoughts and what are fears already etched in subconscious memory might be unlocked in conscious thought. They are aspects that many of us have long held to be true, but Lipton takes on an evangelical emphasis to encourage believers to no longer feel they are trapped in the rut imposed by the false belief we are constrained by a preprogrammed genetic disposition.
But equally we know that the outcome does not always turn out as positive as we might have hoped as we are confronted by children born or contacting an incurable chronic disorder who die prematurely notwithstanding the loads of love nourished upon them so that it remains an enduring life mystery. The author does not broach such issues except to say that he thinks his biological way of thinking stands a better chance of finding a cure, by forging new frontiers into science.
The author’s admission that he has become a spiritual scientist oddly enough tucked away as an epilogue, was to me disappointing as I think he would be more effective if discussed earlier on. His spiritual visions are lucid, concise and exciting as he asserts our life in not arbitrary as may have been inferred from Darwin and his successors. Rather, it is rooted in a series of endless repeating patterns which depend upon cooperation for survival.
Who knows – maybe one day our cell’s membranes intelligence may respond to treatment to expand our conscious awareness sufficiently to ensure no damage can be done.
I would recommend this book for anyone with any interest in alternative idea to traditional biology.
Lindsay Byrnes September 2020
Note 1 – Primordial Soup https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Note 2 –Microbes in a Volcano
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Note 3 –DNA https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Note 4 - first evolved multi cell creatures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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