Ignite the Promise

Where is your Mind?

Have you wondered where your mind is?  Is it in your brain or is it somewhere else?  I wondered to the point that I figured no one knew so I stopped wondering.  Well, there is research evidence suggesting that the brain is not where the mind is.  OK, we know where the brain is, so where is the mind?   

If the mind is defined as the organ that responds to environmental signals with specific and appropriate cell and body responses, then that excludes the brain as the mind.  The mind decides on actions to take.  The mind helps us move to take the action. The brain coordinates the actions.

The definition also excludes the cell nucleus, with its genetic material (DNA), as the mind.  The DNA does not have an on/off switch that is needed to control cellular and body functions. The genes however contain information to produce a response to an environmental stimulus.  That information on the genes is 'protected' by a protein coat.  When the body needs a specific response, a stimulus in the cell activates the protein coat to uncover that portion of the gene to allow synthesis of a needed protein product.  In other words, the genes are there to respond to signals from the cells -- and the cell receives its signals from the environment through its surface membrane receptors. 

While the brain does not have the responsiveness for a 'mind,' the cellular membranes throughout the body have such functional capability.  The short of it?  The mind of the body resides on the surface of cell membranes!  Furthermore, the mind works through energy fields to control our physiology and our health.

As more practitioners take on this new thinking that it is environmental signaling (and not our genetics) that controls our physiology and health, there will be more outside interventions that can help us heal, get well, feel good, and live long vibrant lives!  I am looking forward to learn more about this!  Hope you are too.

These ideas are exerpted from "Biology of Belief" by Bruce H. Lipton (Hay House, 2005).

© Baldwin H. Tom CMC
www.tbgroupconsultants.com

"It's the Environment, Stupid!"

What controls our health, our biology?  Is it our inherited genes?  No!  We have been wrong since 1859 when Charles Darwin published "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection."  With this publication, Darwin launched a quest by scientists for the genetic proof that our biology is controlled by indelible genes.  This concept, Darwinian determinism, has been the mantra for over 100 years and our textbooks and literature tell us that our genes control our lives.  As a former medical school professor (who worked with cells that produced specialized proteins (antibodies) that confer immunity to foreign substances), I, too, learned the mantra.  Scientists spend years searching in the DNA for specific genes, e.g., a cancer gene, etc.  This view suggests that we are not in control of our lives, that the genes we inherit from our parents dictate who and what we will become.  It implies that if our parents had heart trouble or cancer we will have it as well.  We just wait for the cancer gene to emerge!

Genes give us the structure and unique form of who we are, but do not control our biology.  The book, "Biology of Belief" by Bruce H. Lipton (Hay House, 2005) shows it's the environment that is the driver shaping our lives (biology), not our genes.  Lipton, a former professor of Cell Biology, systematically and convincingly presents the case for this 'new biology' that is diametrically opposed to Darwinian determinism.  Instead, Lipton suggests it is Environmental determinism.  The implications of Lipton's thesis are profound.  It means that we are not trapped by our heredity; we are not cursed by poor health experienced by our parents; it is not inevitable that we get cancer if our parents had cancer; importantly, it means we have more control over our health and lives than we ever thought possible.  Lipton does reference that only 5% of cancer and cardiovascular patients can attribute their diseases to heredity. 

The dogma resulting from Darwin's thesis was that DNA (genetic material, deoxyribonucleic acid) produced RNA (ribonucleic acid messengers coding for proteins) that leads to protein synthesis.  Lipton says that this DNA-centric view puts the DNA (genes) in control of our biology and he emphatically points out that this is wrong!  Scientists have known much of what Lipton shares, but have not articulated the fact that it is the environment that plays the dominant role in controlling our biology. 

The concept that the gene is in control is so very entrenched (textbooks, curricula, lay media) that it is difficult to change mainstream thinking. It has been widely assumed in the science community that DNA (found in the nuclei of all cells) is the brain for the cell.  A brain is an organ that senses and responds to its environment.  By referencing published science experiments, Lipton shows that the main function of the DNA is for reproduction of the cell.  In his colorful way, Lipton says that the DNA is not the brain, but the gonads of the cell!  If the nucleus/DNA is not the brain, then where is the brain?  By its function, Lipton declares the cell membrane the brain.  The membrane senses the environment and with its receptors and effector proteins sets in motion an appropriate response to the environmental stimulus.  There is a scientific discipline, Epigenetics, that studies the control of cell function outside of genetics.  Most interesting from these studies is the fact that we can change our genetics and that those changes can be transferred to our progeny.  As Lipton says, the primacy of the environmental signal over the DNA results in a sequence that starts with an environmental stimulus resulting in triggering regulatory membrane proteins that then activate the DNA, the RNA, and subsequent protein synthesis.  And proteins are the substances that serve as 'workers' in our bodies to help send signals, pass information, and turn on and off cells that produce other mediators that keep our bodies functioning optimally.

How do we humans develop our biological complexity?  It is with the several hundred thousands of protein molecules that mediate and generate our diverse responses.  It appears that even though mice and humans have about the same number of genes, our proteins' abilities to respond to many environmental stimuli far exceed those of mice. Why?  From epigenetic studies it has been shown that over 2,000 protein configurations can be formed from a single gene sequence.  That's diversity!

The bottom line?  If our cellular membranes translate environmental signals into behavior, then our environment plays the major role in controlling our biology.  This means that we have significant control over health and well-being situations in our lives.  We are not constrained by our genetics.  We can help ourselves and can no longer blame our inherited past.  Now that is exciting!  What does this mean in terms of medical practice, nutrition and health, existing diseases, people and places we interact with, or what we think and do?  New thinking, new treatments, new ideas, and new hope where there was none!  There is more to this story and I can't wait to learn it. 

© Baldwin H. Tom, Ph.D.
www.tbgroupconsultants.com

Brain Patterns, Neurochemicals and Non-Genetic Implications

Most recently when I find an area that connects the right brain to the left brain, I am fascinated.  I have focused on the right brain emotions of feeling good, being sad, being depressed, and having faith because there is now scientific evidence that we can take pictures of our brain patterns that represent these emotions.  Now that is amazing!  There are now ways to characterize and map emotions to different sectors of our brains.  Furthermore, there are now identified molecular markers that serve as messengers in triggering emotions and/or the brain changes.  Awesome!  In other words, we are beginning to discover hard scientific evidence on what we have previously considered just a feeling without science or chemistry associated with it.

As I was reviewing my notes and reference materials to write up this blog, I picked up a book published in 2005, The Biology of Belief, by former university cell biologist Bruce H. Lipton.  I had not read this book yet so I began to flip pages to read sections. It is an amazing read if you are a scientist, as I have been, because it challenges Darwinian determinism.  It notes that it's not the genes that dictate who we are, but it's the environment.  I am still reading the book and I guarantee that it will challenge your understanding about how genes work and do not work in creating who we are. 

While I have yet to complete the reading, here is what has been said about this book.  1) Our biology is controlled by energetic messages from our negative and positive thoughts; 2) The healing potential of our bodies are influenced by our thoughts, perceptions, and subconscious awareness; 3) There is a connection between biology, psychology, and spirituality; 4) Your emotions regulate your genetic expression; 5) Your health is controlled by your lifestyle, not by your genetics; 6) You are less a victim of your genes and more a responsibility of your own actions; and 7) You can change the character of your life by changing your beliefs.  If this synopsis doesn't get you running to read the book, I'm not sure anything will!

While it appears I have deviated from my original theme around finding common denominators in brain patterns and neurochemical secretion among music therapy, prayer, meditation, cognitive behavior therapy, acupuncture, and microcurrent stimulation, I believe this book may actually help reinforce the theme.  The fundamental question I am yet seeking is whether these types of treatments result in physics-based electrochemical endpoints that change our biology.  As an adjunct here, I personally witnessed the change in heart rate of a hospital patient anxious about a planned surgery while she was being prayed over.  Her starting pulse rate on the monitor was 95 and during the 5 minute prayer it dropped to 60 and stayed around 60 until the prayer was over and the patient opened her eyes.  Then it went back up to 75, not 95.  Whether it was the prayer or her relaxation, I don’t know, but her anxiety level was reduced.  The pulse rate drop was dramatic.

To be continued ... 

© Baldwin H. Tom CMC
www.tbgroupconsultants.com

In A Pit With A Lion!

At the end of our lives, our greatest regrets will be those things we should have done but did not.   

Did you ever wonder how some people seem to have lives that are more energized than not, ones that appear to have interesting stories to tell, stories you enjoy listening to?   I have.  It turns out that if we do not live fully, we have regrets.  The most interesting lives tend to be lives lived with fewer regrets! 

Mark Batterson's book (Multnomah Publishers, 2006), "In a pit with a lion on a snowy day," tells the story of an ancient warrior named Benaiah who chased and then jumped into a pit to kill a lion on a snowy day.  Why?  We don't know.  Because Benaiah did so, he was later selected to be the body guard for a king.  Batterson tells this story well, and asks us to imagine what the king thought when he saw Benaiah's resume: "I killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day."   Benaiah later become the commander-in-chief of the entire army. The point of this story was to note that if Benaiah had decided to run instead of chase the lion, his life would have been very different. 

In nine chapters, Batterson tells about other lion chasers and teaches how we can be better lion chasers and live fuller lives. It is also a story about taking risks.  Importantly, it is a story about embracing uncertainty, as lion chasers are never certain what the outcome might be. The bottom line is that we have to have guts to step out in faith and chase lions.  "No guts, no glory!"  We need some offense in our lives, not just defense.  We need to be proactive, not reactive; not just playing it safe.  Lion chasers are always looking for opportunities and making the best of them -- doing the best one can with what one has.

OK.  We are not going to risk chasing a lion.  However, the moral of the story is that if we want to have a full life, we will need to take risks to reach for things we should reach for.  It may be to quit a job for a new one in another state, to start a business, to get married, or to have children.  In each instance there is risk because of the uncertainty of the results.  Risk provides complications and inconveniences.  However, when we embrace uncertainty that comes from risk, the end result can awaken us to a new life and unforgettable moments.

Embracing uncertainty has a lot to do with our perspectives in life.  Do we believe there is a purpose for our lives?  If we see no purpose, we will give up at a first set back.  If we do not believe there is a purpose, then any purpose will do.  If that's the case, we will believe our lives are controlled by circumstance and happenstance – random.  If so, the future is dependent on chance.  Well, I do not believe we are here just to wait for the wind of circumstances to move us about.  I know that everyone has special talents and inclinations.  Thus, I feel these inclinations, when embraced, will lead them toward their purpose -- their destiny.

Here is the challenge.  Faith and the willingness to lose some control in our lives is required in order to have the confidence to embrace uncertainty. When one steps out in faith, takes a chance and becomes a lion chaser, that single experience will change the trajectory of one’s life.  It certainly changed Benaiah's life from common warrior to becoming the supreme warrior! 

Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch survivor of the Nazi WWII camps, demonstrated by working on a needle point picture that our lives look a lot like the underside of a needle point rendering, a jumbo of threads and colors without a discernable pattern.  Yet the front side displayed a beautiful picture.  Christians believe that while we see a jumble of threads, God, from the outside looking in, sees the complete picture.  This means that not all our experiences (and lion chasing) may fit our perceived path (or make sense to us at the time).  Lion chasers are not deterred by gaps of logic, they just move on -- in faith.

Now that I understand the ‘secret’ to a fulfilled life, I have begun chasing more lions!

© Baldwin H. Tom CMC
www.tbgroupconsultants.com

Faith -- The Fifth Dimension

We live in a three-dimensional world -- we move up/down, forward/backward, and side/to side.  When we add time, our total existence is in four dimensions.  That's it.  We can't be anywhere else! It is in these four dimensions that we work and play.  It is in these dimensions that we deal with life and work with their challenges.  We act in response to life's needs and demands.  We make decisions and we make plans.  We enjoy it and we are unhappy about it. 

Is there more?  YES!  For those of us who believe in a force outside of ourselves, we have faith.  Faith is about trust or confidence in someone or some thing.  Faith is not only believing that someone can, but that they will.  Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Faith is expecting the sun to rise again tomorrow because it happened yesterday.  Faith is thus the fifth dimension in which all of us can live. 

It is with faith that we can overcome fear.  Faith allows us to withstand times of challenge and difficulty.   Faith in a greater future guides us to new heights.  Have you been in the presence of someone with a strong faith?  Those individuals tend to be calmer under pressure, less agitated when confronted, and more composed when challenged by life.  Those entrepreneurs with a strong faith about themselves tend to take greater risks in innovative ideas.  Living can be difficult, yet a person of faith tends to weather the difficulties better -- believing tomorrow will be a better day.

It's a new year and I will focus on living fully in all five dimensions -- especially by faith.  That will be my New Year's resolution.  By the way, I have faith that 2012 will be an awesome year! 

© Baldwin H. Tom CMC
www.tbgroupconsultants.com