SATURDAY, 9 MARCH 2019
Like probably most thinkers outside the mainstream, developmental biologist Bruce Lipton has his critics. Nevertheless, everything I’ve listened to and have read over the last few years from Lipton gives me the closest I’ve come to an integrated worldview since my earliest programming as an Evangelical Christian: An explanation connecting the physical world to the non-physical world, the where-you-come-from with the where-you-are-going – or where you could go if you do the right things.
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One of the most appealing aspects of Lipton’s explanation of how things work, especially as described in his book, Biology of Belief, is that it empowers the individual. You are responsible for your own life – much more than you ever could have imagined.
I understand that the thought can be extremely unpleasant for some people, who already feel that they aren’t good enough, or that they are not doing well enough. And now they have to hear they themselves might be responsible for their own misery!
Of course, it’s complicated. After all, human beings are complex organisms. The world is complex. Numerous factors play a role in how good or how bad you do in your life, including health-wise.
Belief in your own abilities to positively affect your life, and recognition that you are largely responsible for your own life, does, however, have practical value. If people already have disagreement with this point, there is a good chance they will undermine their own abilities to positively affect their lives.
Some people might point out other factors that also play a role in your physical well-being – things like toxins in the environment or genetic mutations that affect how cells function. Of course there are other factors! This is not a black-and-white issue. Even if toxins in the environment affect your health, or if genetic mutations lead to disease, belief in your own abilities to positively affect your quality of life and health will continue to make a difference.
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It’s like a completed circle. You look at biology, physics, chemistry, math, and so on, and finally at quantum physics – protons, electrons, and neutrons that act in all sorts of unexpected ways; energy that is the basic element of everything that exists, and perception that affects how cells function. You move away from religion and the “spiritual” world you can’t touch but that is supposed to affect your life, and you end up with wonderful things that scientists sometimes find difficult to explain, and that, if you look at it carefully and think about it, are not too far from the meaning of the word, “magic”.
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