The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles
by Bruce H. Lipton
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bruce H. LiptonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-03
ISBN: 0975991477
Number of pages: 296
Publisher: Mountain of Love
Book Reviews of The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles
Book Review: Yet another new-age nonsense book attacking real science
Summary: 1 Stars
As a scientist engaged in biophysical research, I feel the strong need to redress the many dangerous, erroneous, sophistic claims and attacks on science that Dr. Lipton is pandering to the public. It would seem that Dr. Lipton is a well-meaning man, but I am afraid his departure from objective rationality is the equivalent of a man that has found religion and given his reasonings over to mere faith. He states that environment has a profound influence over gene expression and that genes in and of themselves do not dictate biology. He uses the word "epigenetic," meaning above or beyond the genetic level. Neither this term nor the idea that environment plays a role in biology however is new--and moreover there is nothing mystical about it.
A case in point is the well studied model sea urchin gene called Endo16, which plays a very important role in the developing archenteron, or "gut" during the gastrula stage of larva development. Endo16 is an amazingly intricate gene, its regulation controlled very precisely by certain modular components, which dictate when to activate the promoter region, which allows the cellular machinery that transcribes the genetic information into the code (mRNA) that in turn gets translated into actual protein.
These modular, regulating components are extremely sensitive to the environment, and the environment serves as inputs, which then cause a series of logical responses of where, when, and in what amount the gene will be expressed. The environmental inputs that play a role in regulation are various proteins, called transcription factors, which either induce or repress gene expression. Temperature and pH level also play a role in the expression of many genes.
Moreover, identical genes and cloned cells never behave identically. This too is not owed to some mysterious mystical "conscious field" but rather to stochastic processes and noise inherent in the system, where a limited number of available transcription binding sites and competition with other proteins leads to a statistical range of possibilities. What is amazing is that many biological systems have evolved an amazingly complex redressing of such seeming restrictions, leading to incredibly robust dynamics, meaning they can tolerate a wide range of changing environmental conditions.
The rapidly emergent field of systems biology, still very nascent but making great strides and progress, is now integrating how genomes regulate single genes into a more encompassing organism-wide or so-called "cell-web" consideration. Genes are not the only players. The proteome, which is the set of all proteins at a given time is also important. Also important is the metabolome, the entire set of metabolites that make up the metabolic chemistry of the cell. There is even a more abstract consideration called the "regulome," a term referring to how metabolites, proteins, and genes ultimately interact and dynamically play out over time. The cell is an amazingly complex entity, and the integrative properties of how they interact leads to amazing synergistic properties!
Despite having learned enormously from the Human Genome Project, Dr. Lipton attacks it as a "failure" for having mistakenly predicted that the number of genes in H. Homo Sapiens would be over 100,000 and asserts that researchers claimed the project would demonstrate the belief of "genetic determinism." Although it is true that the prediction of human genes was wrong, the Human Genome Project is far from a failure. Quite the contrary! It is one of the most incredible feats of human accomplishments-right up there with sending a man to the moon. In fact, I would submit even more significant in accomplishment for the doors of continuous opportunities in research that is has now opened. The project revealed two amazing things: 1) there are only around 23,000 genes in humans, and 2) so-called "junk DNA," which comprises the majority of DNA and is non-coding (meaning it does not contain genes) is extremely important in regulating how the coding sections get expressed. Moreover, the project showed the remarkably adaptive economy of human DNA. The apparent dearth of genes is something of an illusion. Although there are only 23,000 genes, these genes get alternatively spliced together, giving rise to much higher combinations of protein output that could not otherwise be achieved. Lastly, no serious researcher involved in the Human Genome Project saw the project as the end-all of biology or seriously pushed for the notion of genetic determinism. It was understood before the project finished that genes alone were not an end-all answer of biological functioning.
Furthermore, Dr. Lipton claims that illness can be cured by mere belief. This isn't only nonsense; it is incredibly unprofessional and irresponsible. This is the equivalent of a TV Evangelist banging his palm against the foreheads of cancer patients, pushing them back down in their seats and proclaiming them cured, only to then say later to an investigating reporter who mentions that the patients later died that the Lord's magic stopped working because doubt entered into the hearts of the disbelieving patients. What an incredibly cruel sentiment. Yet this is in essence what Dr. Lipton is pandering to the public. If conscious belief worked this way, bringing about the realities we wanted, then we'd all be six-feet tall, rich, and have the looks of professional models and possess super human strength and ability. But where's the reproducible proof? Alas, reality does not work this way.
Lastly, I cannot commend Dr. Lipton for trying to merge science and spirituality together, for his attempt is based not on science-but anecdotal evidence and highly questionable research with no direct evidence or scientific proof. What Dr. Lipton offers, then, is not a new science-but another new-age religion. What is more, Dr. Lipton espouses quite frankly a ludicrous ideology. The title of his book is "The Biology of Belief." Biology is a science, and as such it is built on a system of facts-not beliefs. The Road Runner might levitate above a cliff and Luke Skywalker might levitate objects with his Jedi mind, but each respectively has Warner Brothers physics and Industrial Lights and Magic on their side. For the rest of us, trying to walk on air by stepping off the balcony will prove a comical, if not outright fatal, flaw in reasoning. I'm afraid gravity is not interested in what you believe of its consequential effects. And all the deep, faithful believing of otherwise will not change the outcome.
Lipton however mocks science and the many dedicated men and women devoted in making true scientific progress and expanding our understanding of disease and the laws of nature. To them, a debt of thanks is owed, for real scientific progress is made by them--and the only place belief has a place in that progress is the belief in the ability that we as a species can accomplish such marvelous, triumphant understandings of the world around us.
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Summary of The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles
The Biology of Belief is a groundbreaking work in the field of New Biology. Author Dr. Bruce Lipton is a former medical school professor and research scientist. His experiments, and those of other leading-edge scientists, have examined in great detail the processes by which cells receive 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. Dr. Lipton's 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.Biology Books
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