THE BIOLOGY OF BELIEF – Harnessing the Power of the Human Mind

Thought is a vital creative force that moves. It is infectious, and it changes rapidly. Sometimes it can be hard to keep up with your thoughts, because they move so fast. The body is a product of the mind. Good positive thoughts can keep you healthy, and bad negative thoughts will bring you sickness and disease.

In his book, “The Biology of Belief,” Bruce Lipton, PhD (at page 112-113) gives an example of how the nocebo effect (opposite of the placebo effect; thinking you have a disease when you don’t) can feed into an unjustified belief.           

In1974, Nashville physician, Clifton Meador, had a patient named Sam Londe, who was a retired salesman with esophagus cancer. The disease back at that time was considered fatal. Londe ended up dying about three weeks later, to no ones surprise. The surprise came after Londe’s death, at which time the autopsy found a small amount of cancer in Londe’s body; there was a spot on his lung and one or two on his liver, but not enough to kill him. Most importantly though, there was no esophagus cancer. Not a trace. Three decades later, and Dr. Meador is still haunted by Londe’s death. Meador told the Discovery Channel, “He died with cancer, but not from cancer. I thought he had cancer, he thought he had cancer, everyone around him thought he had cancer. . . did I remove hope in some way?”

And here’s an example of Lipton's work (at page 109) that goes to prove that the placebo effect doesn’t only apply to pills. Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, in 2002, a study lead by Dr. Bruce Moseley, of Baylor School of Medicine, in which Moseley divided his knee surgery patients into three groups. In the first group, Moseley shaved the damage cartilage in the knee. The second group, Moseley simply flushed out the knee joint. And in the third group, he conducted a fake surgery. The “fake surgery” patients were sedated, the standard incisions were made; he splashed water to stimulate the sound of the knee washing and talked and acted like he would, if he had truly done the surgery. All three groups were given the same post surgery instructions. And guess what?

The placebo group improved right along with first two groups. This study was prompted by the question of which surgery was actually giving Moseley’s patients the most relief from their pain. Lipton quotes Moseley as saying, “My skill as a surgeon had no benefit on these patients. The entire benefit of surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee was the placebo effect.”

Bruce Lipton who wrote the book “The Biology of Belief,” is a cell biologist, and at one time a professor at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine.  He later performed pioneering studies at Stanford University.  He is recognized for bridging science and spirituality. 

Through his research and others, it has been proven that thought will reproduce what you believe.  The mind is not a physical object, it is intelligence.  Our bodies are containers full of energy.  The thought will manifest itself in the physical world.  What it can not express outside the body, it will express inside the body.  That’s one reason why it important to keep your thoughts positive.

An easy way to train your mind is with the use of affirmations.  It means to affirm; to make firm; to make strong.  The practice of affirming allows us to replace the negative mind chatter with positive thoughts.  In general, affirmations are positive statements; affirm what you want, instead of what you do not want.  And they should always be made in the present tense, as if it already exists.  Here are some examples:

·         I release all that does not bring me joy

·         I am a radiant being filled with love and light

·         Every day in every way I’m getting better and better

·         My life is blossoming in total perfection

·         I am vibrantly healthy

·         Infinite riches are now freely flowing into my life

·         The light within me is creating miracles in my life here and now

The most effective affirmations are short and sweet.  Say them to yourself silently or verbally aloud.  You can write it on a piece of paper.  Use your name (Kelly is a radiant being filled with love and light; Kelly, you are a radiant being filled with love and light; I Kelly am filled with love and light).  Repeat this process a few times through out your day.

And when you roll out of bed in the morning, instead of saying, “Oh my back,” say, “I feel good and refreshed.” 

You’re simply changing your perspective.  It really does make a difference in your life in regards to your health, and how you feel about yourself as well as others. Here’s an example of how your thoughts can affect others. 

One morning on my way to work, a car cut me off like three times!  At first I had a few choice words for the driver, but then I caught myself and began to say in my mind, “I’m sorry sister, I didn’t mean to call you a ________, and say all of those other mean things.”

When we pulled up to the next stop light, she was beside me.  She rolled her window down and said, “I’m sorry for cutting you off.  I’m just running a little behind, and I apologize.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her. “That’s ok,” I said, “I’ve been there before myself; I understand.”

Talk about Karma!  People usually use the word Karma in a negative aspect, but it works both ways.  If you put positive thoughts out there, then positive things will come to you. 

So clean up your thoughts and make the world a better place to be.  Believe & Be the Change!