The Power Of Consciousness

So you eventually became a biologist. What did you actually learn then? 

Well it was interesting because I became a biologist, a developmental cellular biologist, I was working on cells of course then, and in my graduate work I was cloning stem cells. And it’s interesting because a lot of people think stem cells are something brand new that just came into this world recently; and the fact was I was cloning stem cells back in 1967. Forty years ago.  And the significance was - while I was doing this research - I was also teaching medical students.  So I was teaching medical students the foundations of how cells work, the conventional story out of the text book. Genes control life, what we call the ‘genetic determinism’, the belief that genes control your traits, behavior(s), physical characteristics, et cetera.  And what my research revealed when I was studying the stem cells was this, very profound: I put one stem cell in a petri dish all by itself and it would divide every 10-12 hours. So it would be 2, 4, 8, 16 cells, 32 cells. After about two weeks I had thousands of cells in the petri dish, but what was unique was they were all genetically identical. But then I did the experiment; the experiment was to take some cells out of the dish, and put them into a separate dish with a different environment. And so the environment is a culture medium, but the culture medium to cells is like the world that we live in.  It’s got the air, the water, the food, all of the things in it. So I take the cells out of my stem cell dish, put them into a separate dish with a different environment… and the cells formed muscle. But then I went back to the same dish with genetically identical cells in it, and took some cells and put them in a different environment and they formed bone. And then I went back to the same dish with genetically identical cells and put them in a third petri dish with a different environment and they formed fat cells.  And there I was confronted with this reality: all the cells are genetically identical, but they had different fates; fat, muscle, bone. I said, “Simple question. What controls the fate of cells”? And the answer is: the environment. It was the only thing that was different, because they were all genetically identical. So I started to really say, “Oh my goodness, here I am teaching genes control life, to the medical students, and yet the cells were revealing to me that hey, they all had the same genes, but it was the environment that I put them in”. And so the environment controlled their life, and a very simple experiment that is very profound for us today is, if I took my plastic petri dish with cells in it and moved it from a healthy environment to a less than healthy environment, the cells get sick.  And if I were a ‘Doctor of cells’ you might say, “Well, what kind of drugs would you give these cells?”  And it turns out, no you don’t give the cells any drugs, you just take the dish from the bad environment, put it back into a good environment, and the cells will innately, naturally, come back to health again.

So, how did this realization impact you at the time? Because you were teaching something completely different, you did this experiment and realized what you were teaching wasn’t the full truth. 

Well absolutely, and then I had a problem with my colleagues, because first of all they doubted my work and I brought them into the experiments and I had them observe them, and watch them… and they all said: “Wow, yah, the environment controls the cells”… but they wanted to marginalize it so that they would say, “That’s an exception or an anomaly” because we’re teaching genetic control.  It didn’t fit the story. The net result, what it lead me to do was - I had tenure, I had tenure at the university – but I walked out of the university and said, “Look I can’t keep my integrity, and at the same time teach something I know is patiently wrong”. So I walked out because I saw that teaching the belief that genes control life was very, very incorrect. And it’s very interesting because I did that in 1970 and now it’s like 30, 40 years ago, and guess what? The new science that is just coming into the forefront of our world today, is something called ‘Epigenetic Control’.  What I was teaching was genetic control, control by genes. The new science that is now coming around is called 'Epigenetic Control'. And what that means, and you need to understand the prefix ‘epi’ means above. So you say ‘epi-dermis’ that means the layer above the dermis, or skin. If I say “Epigenetic Control” then literally it says ‘control above the genes’. And this is the new science and why is it profound? Because when you teach genetic control, you teach victimization. You didn’t pick the genes as far as we know. The genes control your traits. You can’t change the genes… so you become victimized by your heredity.  And the new science - epigenetic control - reveals how your response to the environment, as you change your response to the environment, you change the fate of your cells. Just like in the petri dish. That makes you a master because you are the one who has the opportunity to change your perception and response, and therefore you are the one that controls your genes.

But it took you some time, didn’t it, to incorporate that into your life because in 'The Biology of Belief', your book, you talk about you went through a very unhappy period… your father was dying of cancer… you had a very messy divorce from your first wife and you weren’t happy. And you thought at that point that actually your genes did influence and that you had unhappy genes, and it took you some time, to actually realize that in your life, you could change things.

Yes, it was very interesting because again I was still coming from the programs of my own deep beliefs which I got from childhood on, about genetic control. And yet, it was funny because I was at that point also going out and beginning to talk to people about this new science, about… if you understand what I am talking about you can create this fabulous life. And it was fun because in the beginning I would try to get people together and I would tell them that “You can create this fabulous life” and they would sit back and look at me and say, “You know Lipton, for a guy that says you can create a life with this… your life doesn’t look that good”. And essentially I almost said, and fortunately I didn’t say the words, but I essentially said, “Well do as I say, not as I do”. And that was the opening point that said, “Oh my God, I can’t just talk about the academics of the new science.  To make it work, you actually have to apply the principles of the new science”. And that was a change point in my life, where I said, “Well, I am not going to lecture on this unless I verify to myself that by influencing my personal beliefs and attitudes and things, that I can change my biology.” And it was wonderful. Because, it only took just a short time to realize how I manifest profound changes in my life by taking in the understanding that how I see the world, my perceptions, control not just my internal biology and my genetics’ behavior, but it controls how I create in the world around me. So I went from a world of almost self-destruction, into this world of more mastery. And the most exciting thing is that I have found since that time, that I absolutely live in heaven.

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