The Biology of Belief, Bruce Lipton, 2005 – These are the sort of books I would have frowned at a decade back with my hard-science upbringing. This book transcends the known and understood science of cell biology (author is a cell biologist) and epigenetics and delves into conjectures of how it affects our behavior and psychology. It brings in quantum mechanics briefly to argue how at the membrane and protein level, interactions are not strictly just through physical molecules but could also be through energy and charges (which influence the receptor proteins) and how looking at things as objects, interactions and causes and effects from our Newtonian conditioning through classical mechanics might not be the right way to go.
My notes –
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A cell’s life is controlled by the environment as much as its genes. Genes get turned on or off based on physical and energetic environment
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We are made of about 50 trillion single cells (essentially a community of citizens)
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Most people believe in genetic determinism and think their fate cannot be changed. Nothing can be more irrational. You can change your life by changing your beliefs
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Signal Transduction is how cells respond to environmental cues. This perception through reflexive biochemical pathways for single cells is more varied in higher-level multicellular organisms that perceive the environment through multiple senses (Our perception changes our biology)
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Epigenetics – Control above the genes. Study of how environment selects, modifies and regulates gene activity
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Many of the beliefs propelling your life are probably false and self-limiting
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Electron microscopes are 1000x more powerful than conventional light microscopes and can magnify 100000x to observe cells and even their molecular structure
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As a nation reflects the traits of its citizens, so does the human-ness of our cellular communities
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A fully conscious mind trumps both nature and nurture
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Anthropomorphism – Explaining nature of things not human in human behaviour terms
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Organelles of the cell are suspended in a jelly-like cytoplasm – similar to organs and tissues of our bodies
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Each eukaryote (nucleus containing cell) possess the functional equivalent of our nervous system, digestive system, respiratory, excretory, endocrine, muscle and skeletal, circulatory, integumentary (skin), reproductive and even a primitive immune system
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Each cell is an intelligent being that can survive on its own
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Like humans, single cells analyse thousands of stimuli from the micro environment they inhabit
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Single cells are also capable of learning and creating cellular memories and also passing them on (antibody protein for measles virus is remembered and passed on this way)
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Within the first 600 million years of Earth’s formation, there was single-cell life and for the next 2.75 billion years, there were only single cells
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Around 750 million yrs ago first multicellular life appears in 10s and 100s of cells living together. The evolutionary advantage soon preferred larger communities of millions, billions and even trillions of cells
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Awareness leads to survival. A colony of cells multiplies this awareness
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Differentiation led to specialisation and distribution of workload among different members of the community (Not unlike our society)
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Division of labour and specialisation (only a fraction of cells involved in perception for eg.) was a huge survival advantage (more can live on less)
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Lamarck suggested evolution was based on instructive cooperation of organisms in an environment, 50 years before Darwin (He wasn’t entirely right but it somehow became fashionable to denounce Lamarckism)
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The sharing of genetic information (gene transfers) can speed up evolution (acquiring learned experiences through others)
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Tinkering with the genes of tomato may alter the biosphere in ways we cannot foresee (systems biology). Genetically modified agri crops may give rise to superweeds for eg.
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Evolution is more dependent on the interaction of species than among individuals of a species (Lenton. Sounds similar to Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis)
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Students may needs to be praised as first-rate students to believe they could be first-rate students which they will eventually become
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We lead limited lives not because we have to but because we think we have to
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In cell biology, when cultured cells you are studying are ailing, you first look at the cell’s environment, not to the cell itself for the cause
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Cells are made up of 4 large molecules – polysaccharides (sugars), lipids (fats), nucleic acids (DNA/RNA) and proteins. There over 100k proteins to run our bodies
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Amino acids link up like beads or bones in the spine via peptide bonds. Charges in the Amino acids leads to folding where the bonds rotate or flex. Improperly folded proteins are destroyed and the amino acids recycled
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The distribution of electromagnetic charge within a protein can be selectively altered by hormones
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Human genome consists of approx. 25k genes though the expectation was of 120k genes. 80% of presumed to be required DNA doesn’t exist (A microscopic worm has 24k genes so incrementally very little in humans)
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One gene, one protein concept was the fundamental tenet of genetic determinism
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Fruit fly has 15k genes – 9k fewer than the primitive caenorhabditis worm (evolution doesn’t simply increase number of genes)
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Enucleated cells (nucleus removed) can survive for 2-3 months and carry on all functions except reproducing defective parts. Nucleus is more a gonad than a brain
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Nutrition, stress and emotions can modify genes without changing their basic blueprint
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In the chromosome, DNA forms the core and the proteins cover it like a sleeve (when genes are covered, their information cannot be read) – this covering or uncovering is controlled by the environment
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Cell membranes decide what to let in or not through the phospholipid membranes through receptor proteins – cells have uniquely tuned receptor proteins that respond to every environmental signal – in prokaryotes like bacteria thus the membranes act as the brain
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Integral membrane proteins (IMPs) react not just to physical molecules but to energy as well, altering protein’s charge (signal transduction). membrane functions much like a semiconductor with gates and channels
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Thoughts, the mind’s energy, directly influence how the physical brain controls the body’s physiology (our subconscious beliefs of our self-worth hence influence our efforts)
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The limbic system was a mode of communication for the community of cells – our conscious mind feels this communication as “emotion”
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The subconscious mind is reflexive and not governed by reasoning or thinking (Mlodinow’s Subliminal comes to the same conclusions)
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The conscious mind’s ability to overcome the subconscious mind’s preprogrammed behaviors is the foundation of “freewill”
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In histamine and adrenaline introduced into tissue cultures – adrenaline could override the locally produced histamine. Our mind thus is capable of overcoming the body to influence action (placebo effects probably works the same way)
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Nocebo effect – negative suggestions that can damage health (similar to how placebo works). Your belief alters the biology
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Paraphrasing Mahatma Gandhi – beliefs → thoughts → words → actions → habits → values → destiny
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Growth and protection are a continuum – when in protective mode, growth behaviors are restricted (immune system uses up bulk of the body’s energy)
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Stress signals suppress the slow and energy consuming conscious mind to enhance survival (When HPA axis – hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenaline is activated we cannot think clearly and are geared for a fight-or-flight response). HPA is useful in short bursts but modern personal lives keep it activated throughout, thereby stunting growth and thought
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When your conscious mind has a belief thats contradictory to what’s in the subconscious mind, it leads to a weakening of the muscles (subtle tells in lying work this way)
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At a younger age, brain operates in low freq. delta (0.5 – 4 cyc/sec) and theta waves (4-8 cyc/sec). This puts them a suggestible, programmable state. (Parents’ behavior and beliefs become their own during this period). Negative feedback during this period can be extremely damaging to the child in the long run
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Beta waves (12-35 Hz) kick in around 12 years of age and are required for focused attention (like reading a book). Gamma waves (> 35 Hz) is peak performance
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Conscious mind can think forward and backward in time while subconscious mind is always in the present. Latter handles almost 20 million environmental stimuli per second while the former handles just around 40. When not self-aware, we let the subconscious handle everything
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We must be careful not to implant unnecessary fears and limiting behaviors in our children
We are influenced by what we believe and most of the time are limited only by what we believe. The booked helps you understand why the ceiling exists and who put it there and why it doesn’t have to exist where it does. You can see this in sports all the time where a player overcomes the imposed labels to be something else altogether (Rahane at present for eg.) – nothing has changed except a overcoming of pre-programmed beliefs. I found the book to be natural ally to Mlodinow’s Subliminal and at least one of the two must be read by everyone at some point (preferably later in life when the ceiling is reached, leading to what modern life calls “midlife crisis”). This book benefitted me more than I care to admit. 10/10
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