Beliefs & Opinions – Stephen Davis
―Dr. Bruce Lipton (1) began his scientific career as a cell biologist. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville before joining the Department of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin‘s School of Medicine in 1973, where his research on muscular dystrophy focused on the molecular mechanisms controlling cell behaviour. In 1982, Dr. Lipton began examining the principles of Quantum Physics and how they might be integrated into his understanding of the cell‘s information processing systems. In the process he discovered that the brain of a cell is not in the nucleus (which is what I was taught in school), but in the membrane – the outer surface, or skin of the cell.
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His research at Stanford University‘s School of Medicine, between 1987 and 1992, revealed that the environment, operating though the membrane, controlled the behaviour and physiology of the cell. His discoveries, which ran counter to the established scientific view that life is controlled by the genes, gave rise to one of today‘s most important fields of study, ‗The Science of Epigenetics‘.(2) Many subsequent papers by other researchers have since validated his concepts and ideas.
Epigenetics is to biology what quantum physics was to physics; it has turned our age-old understanding of biology upside down; or, as I‘ve put it many times already, the opposite of what we have always believed is true. From epigenetics, we now know our perception of the environment controls our DNA, not the other way around!
Bruce is a brilliant man and a good friend. Unfortunately, he still believes what‘s out there (the human body in particular) is real; but despite that, through his bestselling book, ‗The Biology of Belief,‘ and his live seminars called ‗The Biology of Perception,‘ he offers some very important insights into the effects of beliefs on our lives. How we see life determines our behaviour, and since perceptions can be wrong, it is more accurate to say that beliefs control biology – what you believe creates your life.
The first example he offers is what is called the ‗Placebo Effect‘.(3) It is normally used as a medical term, meaning a patient is given something neutral
– like a sugar pill – and yet it makes them feel better. There is no chemical reason in the placebo for it to have any effect at all on the body, but it does somehow. That somehow is because the patient believes it will, and nothing else.
It is the patient‘s belief that changes their biology and their behaviour.
Statistics reveal that one-third of all medical healings are the result of the placebo effect.
But this placebo effect does not have to be limited to medicine or pills. In fact, it is in operation a lot of the time as we, the players, believe something (anything) is good for us that are actually neutral, and yet it makes us feel better. This, of course, is true for all homeopathic remedies as well. ‗Homeopathy‘ (4) is still based on a belief that taking something from out there (natural though it might be) will have an effect in here.
The other side of the coin, and not nearly as well known, is the ‗Nocebo Effect.‘
(5) This is when a patient (or a player) believes something, anything that is actually neutral is harmful to them; and it makes them feel bad or worse, when in fact there‘s nothing in the nocebo that can hurt them at all.
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If a doctor tells you that you have a certain disease, or the doctor tells you that you‘re going to die (and you believe the doctor because he‘s a professional), that belief can give you a certain disease or can cause you to die.
The most famous Nocebo currently is HIV. ‗Dr. Peter Duesberg,‘ (6) member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley (a renowned virologist who received acclaim early in his career for research on oncogenes and cancer) says there‘s nothing about HIV that can do damage to a human body, that HIV is a harmless passenger virus and according to ‗Dr. Kary Mullis,‘ (7)
Nobel Laureate in chemistry, and over two-thousand other medical and scientific researchers, health care professionals, and journalists, there is not one scientific paper proving HIV causes AIDS. In fact, HIV fails every accepted scientific test to be called the cause of AIDS. But if someone believes HIV will make them fatally ill, it can; and many will die from taking the drugs prescribed to treat them.
In both cases (the placebo and the nocebo) it is the player‘s belief and not the actual experience that controls their perceptions and determines their behaviour. If you believe that something will be good for you, it will be good; and if you believe that something is harmful, it will be bad. ‗Dr. Lipton‘ (8)
stresses the fact that a lot of our beliefs are learned from other people and those learned beliefs can actually override our natural perceptions and instincts.
For example, all babies know how to swim when they are born. But as they grow up and watch the reaction on their parents‘ faces whenever they get near water, the baby learns to be afraid of water; and then it needs to be taught how not to fear water and to swim again at the proper age – when their parents are no longer afraid.
Bruce likens our perception to a camera, taking snapshots of the physical world our brain has projected out there. But, he says, our beliefs act like filters on that camera, filtering out certain frequencies and changing the picture that comes in; and he offers a very good example of this during his workshops when he puts one slide on the screen that makes no real sense……… and has the audience put on a pair of glasses he provides with green lenses and look at the picture. Then he has them trade the green lenses for glasses with red lenses and look at the same picture (the audience sees two very different pictures on the screen by filtering out certain light waves). In exactly the same way, Dr. Lipton concludes, our belief filters determine how we perceive our world and therefore how we react and respond to our experiences. ‗Life has everything in it, but you will only see what you have belief filters to see.‘
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There‘s a classic psychology experiment where mixed in a normal pack of playing cards is a red six of spades. The red six of spades is shown to a group of people along with other normal playing cards. The people are asked to write down the cards they see. Many people cannot see a red six of spades the first few passes through the cards; some can never see it as a red six of spades, even when holding it in their hands!
The conclusion is that our beliefs can filter and affect what data comes in through our senses. We can end up seeing and hearing only what we believe.
The stronger the belief system, the more powerful will be its ability to filter out data that contradicts those beliefs. You were taught and you believe that seeing
is believing. It should be the other way around!
You have come to understand that metaphorically speaking, the eye is a camera that passively collects light and brings it in to record photographs of what is actually ‗out there,‘ with no alteration of the sense data going on. What I am proposing is that in actuality the reverse of that simple phrase is true: believing is seeing. What I am proposing is that the eye is a camera that filters out most of the electromagnetic spectrum to only record visible light, and that the camera is controlled by the photographer who chooses consciously or unconsciously what to photograph. In this case, we start with a belief that a red six of spades doesn‘t exist, so it‘s difficult to see it for what it actually is; and for some with very strong and controlling belief systems, it‘s virtually impossible.
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I deliberated long and hard about whether to include this next example, because it is so controversial; but it is also the most perfect example I can think of to illustrate how our beliefs affect what we perceive out there and prevent us from seeing what is and how those beliefs can contribute to so much pain and suffering in our lives.
Even if you are not a Christian, you probably know Jesus was crucified and died on a cross, to rise again from the dead three days later. Over the last 2000
years, many people have believed this and based their lives on it.
Here is the scripture from the Holy Bible on which this belief is based (even if you know this story already, please read it again now) ……... Luke 23:50 ‗And, behold, there was a man named Joseph……... 52 This man went unto Pilate, and begged [for] the body of Jesus. 53
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And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid……...55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. 24:1
Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye him that liveth among the dead?
He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words, and returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Mag'dalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, what manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?
And the one of them, whose name was Cle'opas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, what things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done.
Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not……...
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And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another; did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, Saying, the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
And he said unto them, why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.‘
But what if this were actually the account of a man who was taken down from his cross after just three hours, still alive, moved to a secret hiding place where he was treated for the wounds on his hands and feet and head and side, survived, left three days later under his own steam, and met his disciples on the road as he was walking out of Jerusalem.
In other words, I want to ask you to read the exact same Bible passages again, without the prior belief Jesus died on the cross….Luke 23:50 ‗and, behold, there was a man named Joseph……...52 this man went unto Pilate, and begged
[for] the body of Jesus. 53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid……... 55 And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. 56 And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. 24:1 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:
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And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye him that liveth among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words, and returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things unto the eleven, and to all the rest. It was Mary Mag'dalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apostles. And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Then arose Peter, and ran unto the sepulchre; and stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass. And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them. But their eyes were holden that they should not know him. And he said unto them, what manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? And the one of them, whose name was Cle'opas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, what things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people: and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; and when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not……... And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, Saying, the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
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And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, why are ye troubled and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them. Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.‘
I cannot imagine how that could be any clearer. Jesus is saying he‘s alive, that this was his actual physical body, not a spirit; and to prove it, he ate meat with them. There are even more telling phrases in the other Gospels. In Matthew, 18
for example……...Matthew 28:5 ‗And the angel answered and said unto the women, fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. 6 He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come; see the place where the Lord lay. 7
And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him.‘
……...and……...Matthew 28:10 ‗Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me……...
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him.‘
A resurrected body would not need to go before anyone else to any place. It would just appear there spontaneously. Nor would it need to tell anyone to go someplace to see it.‘
The Gospel of Mark says……...Mark 15:43 ‗Joseph of Arimathaea, an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and