Book Review: The Biology of Belief

Have you ever started a book expecting a certain tone and style and then were blown away with something completely different? That was my experience with The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton.

Beyond that, it was a book I never intended to read. My journey to discovering it started several months ago when I became increasingly intrigued about how much influence our thoughts have on our lives. I started by digging in with Tony Robbins’ Awaken the Giant Within, and then moved to Wayne Dyer’s Excuses Begone. As I practiced some of their techniques, I was convinced that the concept had merit, but I didn’t understand why. And for me, that was important.

So I downloaded Lipton’s book to my Kindle, expecting to wade through a scientific textbook. I started reading in the Corpus Christi airport and didn’t mind a bit when our flight was delayed because of the weather. I was pleasantly surprised by how Lipton presented his research in the first person, sharing his personal journey alongside his research. His metaphors were so vivid, I’ll never look at a sandwich the same way again. And most fascinating to me was how his scientific discoveries transformed him from an agnostic Darwinian biologist to a man of faith. As he says in the epilogue, “The mechanics of the new science revealed the existence of our spiritual essence and our immortality. For me, the conclusions were so unambiguous that I instantly went from nonbeliever to believer.”

So what exactly did Lipton discover? You really need to read the book, but here’s my understanding of the basic one-two punch:

1. A cell’s life is controlled by the environment and not by its genes. Genes are simply molecular blueprints used in the construction of cells, tissues, and organs. The environment serves as a “contractor” who reads and engages those genetic blueprints and is ultimately responsible for the character of a cell’s life. And just like a single cell, the character of our lives is determined not by our genes, but by our responses to our environment.

2. There is a natural priority built into our biology which requires cells to follow instructions from the central nervous system, even if these signals are in conflict with the local environment of the cell. These experiments revealed why the mind (acting via the central nervous system) can override the body (acting via the local signal).

Aside from his own research, Lipton integrates other major studies to support his arguments, most specifically on placebo effects. The most compelling is a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2002. Dr. Bruce Moseley, a renowned knee surgeon, designed a study to determine which part of the surgery was giving his patients relief: shaving the damaged cartilage or flushing out the joint. He also included a third group that got “fake” surgery, the anesthesia and the incisions but no actual repairs to the joint. All three groups received the same treatment post-surgery, including an exercise program.

The results were shocking. The groups that received surgery improved as expected. But the placebo group improved just as much as the other two groups. The placebo group did not find out for two years that they had not received the “real surgery.” As the NEJM summary concludes: At no point did either of the intervention groups report less pain or better function than the placebo group.

I would encourage everyone to read this book. Lipton’s findings and research will force each of us to think differently about many aspects of our lives: our physical health, our faith, how we parent, and how fear restricts our ability to grow. The research is eye-opening and incredibly empowering.

In the everlasting words of Mahatma Gandhi:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits. Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.”