The "Biology Of Belief" And Beyond

In 2005 cell biologist Bruce Lipton published a book that attracted a good deal of attention in the natural health and healing world: “The Biology of Belief.” I heard about the book at the time, but didn’t read it until recently.

For anyone who has read classic self help books like “As a Man Thinketh”, by James Allen or seen films like “The Secret” the underlying idea of Lipton’s book will sound familiar. It goes something like this:

“You are in control of your life and what you believe about yourself determines what you experience.”

This idea is nothing new. In fact, you can trace it back at least a few thousand years to the Upanishads:

“You are what your deep driving desire is. As your deep driving desire is, so is your will. As your will is so is your deed. As your deed is so is your destiny.” (Maitiri Upanishads)

But the way in which Lipton brings this idea out of the clouds and into the physical body is fresh and innovative.

In general terms, here’s what Lipton shows us. Our bodies are a cooperative community of 50 trillion intelligent cells that work together for mutual benefit. In order to work and live together these cells depend on communication pathways that run through the membranes of the cells. When these membranes are open and flexible, information passes freely between cells and vibrant health results.

What’s important then, from the perspective of cellular health, is to make sure these membranes stay open and flexible. If you’ve ever seen photos comparing blood cells you’ll notice that healthy ones have thin easy moving membranes, while sick ones have thick rigid borders. Lipton eloquently points us to the idea that unhealthy ones are “protecting” themselves while healthy ones are “growing.”

But what makes a cell protect itself or grow? According to Lipton’s research it’s all in the environment. If you provide the cell with a clean, life affirming environment, it’s going to grow and if you surround it with toxins, its going to protect itself. It’s pretty simple stuff really, that Lipton learned as far back as the late 1960s when he observed cells’ response to environmental toxins.

Following Lipton's argument, if you’re interested in enjoying great health, the key is to provide a clean, life affirming environment for your cells. The million dollar question…”how do I do that?” Lipton’s basic answer to the big question is: “believe you can.” Lipton cites a few impressive “placebo cases” where sick people get better by using fake medicines or surgeries that they believe will work.

But then he admits that belief is very slippery issue and is controlled by something most of us are not aware of: the subconscious. That’s why self help strategies like positive thinking and goal setting don’t always get results. If your subconscious agrees with your positive thoughts, you’ll get results, but if it doesn’t you won’t. For example, you can think “I am radiantly healthy” all day, but if your subconscious mind believes that you are genetically predisposed to get cancer, it will trump your positive thoughts.

Here’s where Lipton leaves us, at the edge of the vast and mysterious unconscious.

But I don’t want to stop here. There are two more things that I think are important to share as we jump from Lipton’s book into more unknown territory.

First is what I’ll call the “nutrition question.” If the cell’s environment is key to health, and many other researchers besides Lipton have shown that it is, then nutrition is key to that environment. Simply put, you can help your cells thrive by providing them with high energy food.

This starts by keeping the fluid which surrounds your cells clean. That’s why I’m such a big advocate of internal cleansing, and the living food diet. Both of these practices have been shown to drive toxins from your body.

You can also boost your cellular vitality by adding high vibration superfoods like goji berries, maca, coconut oil, and green food supplements to your diet. Still another very effective way to do keep your cells "happy" is to use high frequency essential oils.

These are topics that I share frequently through my newsletter, so I won’t say much more about them now.

The second issue in moving beyond Lipton’s book is the question of core beliefs.

When you slow down and start looking carefully at your motivations, you’ll find that all of you actions grow out of one of two core beliefs. These beliefs go something like this: “I am a fragile, limited body” or “I am indestructible limitless energy.”

Finding and encouraging ways to rest in the second of these beliefs is perhaps the ultimate experience of the human journey. And it leads to a life described by effortless flowering of what already is instead of struggle against what seems to be.

One way to rest in the “limitless” is to continually look to if what you are doing is motivated by love or fear. To check that, use your feelings.

How does what you are doing now make you feel?

Actions motivated by love always lead to feelings of happiness, expansion and peace. nnn