The Biology of Belief – Bruce Lipton

 

Bruce Liption - The Biology of Belief

Bruce Liption - The Biology of Belief

Book Report –The Biology of Belief – February 26, 2012

The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles.
Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D.
Hay House, 2008 

Until reading The Biology of Belief, I had used the Emotional Freedom Technique because it works so powerfully.  Now, with The Biology of Belief, I believe I may understand why the Emotional Freedom Technique biologically works and how it makes sense that it can relieve fibromyalgia pain.

Author Bruce Lipton calls himself a cell biologist with an epiphany.  He believes that our genes do not determine our identity or our fate.  Genes, it turns out, can’t do anything unless they get a signal to start creating this or that protein.  It’s the signal that determines what our genes do.  And that signal comes from the environment around the cell.  The Biology of Belief provides fascinating reading, and compelling propositions.

  • Our beliefs provide signals to our cells. 
  • Our cells respond to signals.
  • Humans are a Biology of Belief.

How does this work?  Chapter 3 explains how information comes through the cell membrane.  More  than one hundred thousand receptor proteins are contained in a cell membrane of a typical cell.   Each of these receptor proteins is created to respond to only specific environmental signals.  Depending on what those signals are, the genes of the cell are commanded to create specific proteins to carry out specific tasks.  According to Lipton, the cell membrane, this 7 millionth’s of a millimeter thick layer is the real brain of the cell. It’s the place where genes get their directions. The membrane rules, the genes carry out the commands. Lipton has a simple analogy between a cell membrane’s ability to transmit information, compared with a butter and olive sandwich.  The analogy comes with pictures and he comes back to his sandwich throughout the book.  Liption loves cell membranes!

From a single cell to a human; human beings are collections of about 50 trillion cells.  According to Lipton, the reason for our evolution is that we can process more information as a collection of cells, and we have a better chance of survival with all the cells taking on specialized functions for the good of the whole.  Understanding a single cell helps us to understand the human organism as a whole of 50 trillion cells.  Lipton goes on in the rest of the book to lay out how important and how possible it is for us to influence our health and well being by creating an environment of appropriate signals to our cells and our entire body.

What is the relationship to EFT and to fibromyalgia.  In Liption’s worldview, its all about the signal that the cell or the body or the brain receives.  Depending on that signal,  proteins are produced by the genes to fufill certain functions.  Some signal is behind fibromyalgia.  And if EFT is providing signals via the energy meridians, here we have a possible connection and explanation for how EFT can be effective in helping to reduce fibromyalgia pain.

Why can’t we normally just think away fibromyalgia or other physical conditions, or attitudes, or habits?  It’s because the subconscious operates automatically.  And the subconscious takes in so vastly much more information per second than our conscious mind does.  Consciously, Liption notes that we can process about 40 environmental stimuli per second.  Subconsciously, in that same second, we process 20,000,000 million environmental stimuli.  No wonder its so incredibly challenging to change a subconscious behavior just because we consciously want to. 

Our conscious patterns don’t typically have much power in the face of the automatic choices of the subconscious.  But this is where tapping may come in.  Somehow, perhaps  when we verbalize an issue in the conscious mind, while tapping on the energy points of the body, the combination actually does free up the ability of the subconscious to create a new automatic pattern.  In terms of fibromyalgia tapping actually may allow us to create a new relationship between our emotions and our experience of pain.  In my observations with tapping, I clearly see people getting to a deeper level than they normally do just by thinking about an issue or using their willpower to try to change a situation. 

There’s much to enjoy and appreciate in Liption’s Biology of Belief.  I wanted simply to give an impression of how I think this book does indeed relate to both fibromyalgia and the Emotional Freedom Technique.  Based on my experience with tapping with people with chronic pain,  Lipton’s mechanisms seem consistent with what I observe in practice.  If I could make this a required read,  I would.  It will be worth your time.  The Biology of Belief will transform your understanding of life.