We Are What We Think

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The fascinating thing about the field of human motivation is that the more you study it the more you appreciate how science and spirituality are ultimately converging on the same amazing conclusions regarding our ability to create our own reality.

That’s not to say that scientists and spiritual seekers share the same belief systems. Many are still poles apart in their thinking when it comes to the secrets of life.

Slowly, however, it would appear that more and more scientific studies are bearing out some of the more esoteric wisdom that has been popularised by books and movies like ‘The Secret’.

In this week’s post I’d like to follow up on the general theme introduced in last week’s post ‘Shape Your Own Destiny’ but I’d like to come at it from a different, more scientific angle.

[box type=\”shadow\”]“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

― Albert Einstein[/box]

 

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We are what we think (continued)

 

Scientific fact … and the rest

Most of us have grown up to appreciate that there are things about our universe and our existence that can be substantiated by scientific fact and those that cannot.

Depending on your upbringing, environment and education you may believe that:

  • science is still evolving and eventually everything will be capable of explanation through science; or that
  • certain things were never mean to be explained by science and will forever remain in the domain of the unknown, the magical or the  divine; or that
  • science and the divine, or unknown realms are just different perspectives on the same thing.

Masters of our destiny

Whatever you believe is, of course, your choice. Nevertheless, you may be heartened to find that, increasingly, scientific research is bearing out that we are far greater masters of our own destiny than we may realise.

Some scientists are starting to uncover something that spiritual wisdom has long proposed – that we create our own realities through what we choose to think and believe.

One of the most interesting books that I have read on the subject is The Biology of Belief by Bruce H Lipton, PhD. What I have written below derives from my understanding of what is presented in Lipton’s best seller.

DNA in charge?

In the 1940s scientists discovered that it is our DNA that contains hereditary information or programming.

Later observations of the process by which DNA molecules replicated themselves led scientists to believe that DNA itself was in firm control of that process and therefore directly responsible for determining a person’s characteristics, strengths and weaknesses.

The conviction that your DNA controls your life led to a generalised belief that ‘you are what you inherit’, or, put in rather sobering language, if you had the misfortune to inherit cancer causing genes you were destined to be a cancer sufferer.

This rapidly spawned massive research into linking diseases with faulty genes on the premise that we could come up with a treatment for serious illnesses simply by identifying the genes that caused them and by seeking to remove or alter them. The human genome project followed, in the 1980s as an ambitious effort to categorise all of the genes that go to make up humans.

The fatalists were right

All of this seemed to prove that the fatalists were right. The prognosis for our lives was, to a very large extent, out of our hands. All the positive thinking in the world would not help if there was a bad roll of the dice when it came to your inherited gene pool …

… Or were they?

… Except that the scientists had overlooked something important. The assumption that DNA was in control of the process of its own replication and thus the creation of the protein building blocks for cellular life, was merely a strong assumption … not a proven fact!

Epigenetics is a new and exciting field of biology which has completely changed the way many scientists think about how life is controlled. In essence, research in this field has shown that the genes you inherited do not, in and of themselves, control your destiny.

Rather your genes are controlled or activated by environmental ‘signals’. In simple terms, this means that the cells that go to make up your body are not controlled by your DNA but by the environment in which they live.

You may have certain genes that render you more vulnerable to certain diseases but signals in the environment have to trigger or activate such genes before you will suffer from the disease. The mere presence of the genes alone cannot cause this.

We are what we think

Other research has shown that the environment within which the  cells that make up our bodies live, is heavily influenced by our nervous systems. Our nervous systems in turn react to our thoughts which are shaped by our beliefs.

The upshot of this fascinating discovery is that, to a very great extent, we are what we think!

 

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13 thoughts on “We Are What We Think”

  1. Henry W Arendse

    The wisest man who ever lived, Solomon said: “As a man thinketh, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7). More and more Scientists are rediscovering, Divine Truths revealed in the Holy Bible.

    Thanks for this article.

  2. Bongani Khoza

    Hi Bill
    Have not enrolled with you yet but must say to you that there is no way am going leave or miss out on this institution. Am busy with my registration. Yes I concur to “We are what we think” This is thought provoking. Challenges to think the proper thought.

  3. Ms Nokuthula Bikitsha

    Thanks Bill I’m beginning to grow and get a lot of insight as one day I want to see myself as a professional life coach, thanks once more

  4. Thank you, Bill. I quite agree with the concept of we are what we think.
    I have asked a couple of people this question without getting a clear answer: Do you think that your thoughts, or words we speak, or the actions you take, influence your life the most?
    In my own understanding, I think that it definitely is the thought process, for the simple reason that thought is the origin, that leads to speaking ,which in turn leads to your actions.
    Another quote from Einstein: What you see/ perceive depends on where you are looking from.
    So what you believe and perceive is dependent on your understanding and priority you set.
    The thing about this is, people are quick to point out that if it is just setting your thinking straight, why are we still stuck where we are?
    Well firstly I believe we stuck because you have been thinking your thoughts/understanding all your life .
    Secondly there are two parts to your thinking, your sub-conscience and your conscience, and both of those must be addressed to enable change.
    I see my comment is becoming a book, so I better end.
    Thanks again for your article and insight
    Kind regards
    Dirk

  5. Thanks Bill,
    As always your insights blog seems to be in alignment with my present thinking but articulated in a way that is easy to appreciate and digest…allowing the reader to decide how far down the rabit hole they wish to go 😉

    1. Thanks Peta. I might be inclined to ask how far out of the rabbit hole readers wish to climb 🙂

  6. Thanks Bill. I am becoming more and more stronger since I joined this life coach training. you have changed to a better person.

  7. Thanks,Bill, for your helpful summary of a useful body of research by Lipton and others. Truly, we are benefitting from an ever widening kaleidoscope of fresh (re)discoveries and insights that challenge many of our often strongly-held and reified assumptions and interpretations. I will reposting on my facebook page at eaglecoaching-presence, possibility and praxis :-).

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