The Difficulty of judging “scientific” Results
I recently discovered an article on the Internet that reports on the results of a scientific study about cancer – results that would seem to be not only disheartening, but absolutely terrifying. (The article is at this site.) Since it isn’t all that long, I’ve decided to quote it in its entirety. (All highlights are my own.) Here it is…
“The Wall Street Journal and the CBC are reporting that about two-thirds of cancers are caused by random chance.
The WSJ: The researchers, from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, analyzed published scientific papers to identify the number of stem cells, and the rate of stem-cell division, among 31 tissue types, though not for breast and prostate tissue, which they excluded from the analysis. Then they compared the total number of lifetime stem-cell divisions in each tissue against a person’s lifetime risk of developing cancer in that tissue in the U.S.
The correlation between these parameters suggests that two-thirds of the difference in cancer risk among various tissue types can be blamed on random, or "stochastic," mutations in DNA occurring during stem-cell division, and only one-third on hereditary or environmental factors like smoking, the researchers conclude. "Thus, the stochastic effects of DNA replication appear to be the major contributor to cancer in humans".
The CBC: The researchers said on Thursday random DNA mutations accumulating in various parts of the body during ordinary cell division are the prime culprits behind many cancer types.
They looked at 31 cancer types and found that 22 of them, including leukemia and pancreatic, bone, testicular, ovarian and brain cancer, could be explained largely by these random mutations — essentially biological bad luck.
The other nine types, including colorectal cancer, skin cancer known as basal cell carcinoma and smoking-related lung cancer, were more heavily influenced by heredity and environmental factors like risky behaviour or exposure to carcinogens. Overall, they attributed 65 percent of cancer incidence to random mutations in genes that can drive cancer growth.”
*** End of article ***
Now if that doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what could! For what is it telling us? That it probably doesn’t matter what we do: getting cancer is mere chance. Even if we adopt the healthiest life-style imaginable, many people will get cancer anyway. Wow! I don’t know about you, but this seems totally horrifying to me!
Or I should say, it would be totally horrifying, if I were not someone with the ability to see through such things.
Don’t get me wrong: most likely, the scientists who did this study were not trying to fool anyone. Of course, deceit would be possible, but let’s assume they were completely honest every step of the way. That is, they studied all the data available, and saw that cancer appears as a result of random gene mutations that aren’t affected by environmental factors.
However – there is one thing that they did not include in this study, and it may be the most important factor of them all where developing cancer is concerned. Which factor is that? It is the mind of the individual; his/her habitual thoughts, feelings, fears, attitude towards life, and general mindset.
Lest you think I am being a bit too “New Age” here, let me recommend a book that should be required reading in all of our schools.
Doctor Bruce Lipton was a professor of cell biology at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine, and later at Stanford. In his ground-breaking book “The Biology of Belief”, Dr. Lipton explains his research, and promotes his (very well-founded) theory that genes can and do mutate due to signals they receive from the individual. Allow me to quote from the jacket cover of his book (highlights are my own):
“{Dr. Lipton’s} experiments, and those of other leading-edge scientists, have examined in great detail the mechanisms by which cells receive and process information.
The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts.
This profoundly hopeful synthesis of the latest and best research in cell biology and quantum physics is being hailed as a major breakthrough, showing that our bodies can be changed as we retrain our thinking.”
Precisely this is what I point out repeatedly in this book; it is something that even some alternative practitioners of medicine largely ignore. Namely, the influence of our thought/ belief/ emotional patterns on illness.
When we are beset with an illness of practically any variety, there is almost always a psychological component involved. Yet when that illness, like cancer, comes from within (i.e., is not obtained through contagion by others), we must always seek to discover aspects of our own thinking that may have been a major contributor to the illness.
Two people smoke: one of them, a moderate smoker, comes down with lung cancer; the other, who has always smoked more heavily, never gets cancer. Such things do occur. Why? Because besides the smoking, other factors were involved, almost certainly ones related to the thought/ belief/ emotional patterns of those two individuals.
No doubt that the scientists who did the above-quoted study knew very little, if anything, about the power of mind; if they did, they would never have published the dangerously partial “truth” evident in their report, but would instead have designed a study that would have taken these mental components into account. And if they had been acquainted with the work of Dr. Lipton (and others) they would have not failed to mention the great importance of the mind in cellular activity, and even in gene mutation.
I hope you see clearly why simply reading “scientific” articles can be dangerous to your health: if you believe unquestioningly everything you read in such studies, you may end up feeling that your situation is totally hopeless; that people are the poor victims of the whims of chance, and that there is nothing we can do about it (except, of course, resort to the extremely expensive, and often dangerous, “standard” treatments that the industry is all-too willing to provide). Yet I assure you this is not the case. Quite the opposite: we largely make, and control our lives, and we do it not only through conscious intent, but first and foremost, through our habitual patterns of thought, our beliefs, and our feelings/ emotions.
In the next chapter, I will share with you a little experiment that will show just how this works, and will give you a key to transforming your mind in a positive direction. It is a technique that can be used to great positive effect by everyone. For those with cancer, it is much more than that, for it could be a major contributor to saving your life!