by David Hamilton Ph.D.

The scientific view of the brain was previously that it is hardwired. In other words, we are born with brain cells wired up in a particular way that is unchangeable except that our total brain cell count declines with age.

New discoveries in neuroscience have revamped that view. A common term now used is ‘plasticity’, where the brain moulds, changes, and grows depending upon what you are focusing upon.

So, say you were focusing on things that you were grateful for. Brand new connections would spring up between brain cells as you begin to grow an entirely new network connecting brain cells (neurons). This is called a neural network. Many neural networks are created by us….by what we choose to give our attention to.

Therefore your brain and body is not something that you are simply born with, whose health and functioning you can do nothing about. Instead, you are continually growing, changing, moulding, and shaping your brain and your body. You have far more of an effect on your mental and physical health than you’d think. In many ways, it comes down to what you choose to give your attention to.

And with practise you can develop great control over what you give your attention to. In a sense, you can build up your ‘attention muscle’ in the same way that an athlete might develop leg or arm muscles. Regular meditation is a great way to do this, and some recent neuroscience discoveries of meditators have confirmed this. Through repetitive meditation their brains grew significantly more neural connections than control groups who didn’t meditate. And in particular, much of this growth was found in the area of the brain that controls free will.

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David Hamilton is one of the experts featured in the documentary Beyond Belief.  Get the DVD at:  www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com

by Dr. David Hamilton

I love to meditate and have made it a daily practice. Being quite scientifically minded I love to monitor how it benefits me. Among other methods I often use the Heartmath FreezeFramer (see http://www.heartmath.com ) so that I can see how my meditations affect the rhythms of my heart.

Doing this helps me to stay in a meditative state for the duration of my meditations (usually 30 – 45 minutes). Any loss of concentration usually shows up quickly on the screen of my laptop as my rhythms lose their coherence. By periodically glancing at the screen, I am reminded to keep my focus.

Meditation has been shown to have many positive effects on the body. It is believed that around 80% of all health problems are either negatively affected by stress, or that stress had a hand in their creation. Meditation is a well-known antidote to stress and so has a positive effect on many health complaints.

Since the widespread use of MRI scanners, scientists have been able to explore the effects of meditation on the growth of the brain. In one recent study (published in the journal, ‘Neurobiology of Ageing’), scientists Giuseppe Pagoni and Milos Cekic, from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at Emory University in Atlanta, looked at the grey matter volume of the brain to measure the effects of Zen meditation.

Cerebral grey matter volume usually decreases with age, so the study compared the grey matter volume of 13 people performing Zen meditations against that of 13 control people who weren’t meditators.

What they found was that grey matter volume decreased as expected in the control group but not so with the meditators. In other words, meditation had a ‘neuroprotective’ effect: It slowed down the rate of ageing.

Many studies have shown similar anti ageing effects. It has been found also, for instance, that meditation can slow down the decline in levels of the hormone DHEA, which also usually declines with age.

David Hamilton is one of the experts in the documentary Beyond Belief: www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com

Toward a New Noetic Science

By Bruce H. Lipton, PhD

Third Floor: Vibrational Chemistry

While conventional chemistry has focused on the atomic elements as miniature Newtonian solar systems composed of solid electrons, protons, and neutrons, vibrational chemistry, based upon quantum mechanics, emphasizes that atoms are made of spinning immaterial energy vortices, such as quarks. The new chemistry is concerned with the role of vibration in creating molecular bonds and driving molecular interactions. Energy fields, such as those derived from cell phones or from thoughts, interact with and influence chemical reactions.

Vibrational chemistry defines the mechanisms that mediate the mind-body connection. The body is structurally derived from over a hundred thousand different protein molecules.  Proteins change shape in response to signals — harmonic vibrations in the field. The collective movement of proteins generates the behaviors we observe as “life.” Life-controlling signals originate from both physical chemicals and immaterial energy waves. The energy-protein interface is the junction of the mind-body connection. Via a process called electro-conformational coupling, protein behaviors can be influenced by neural vibrational fields derived from conscious processes (T. Y. Tsong, “Deciphering the Language of Cells”; Trends in Biochemical Sciences 14:89, 1989).

Fourth Floor: The New Biology

Traditional biology, like traditional chemistry, has also been investigated using a reductionist philosophy—organisms are dissected into cells, and cells into molecular parts—to gain understanding of how they work. The new curriculum perceives of cells and organisms as integrated communities that are physically and energetically entangled within their environment. The new biological holism endorses James Lovelock’s hypothesis that the Earth and the biosphere represent a single living and breathing entity known as Gaia. The study of Gaian physiology, emphasizing the participation and integration of all the Earth’s organisms, would reacquaint us with our connection to the planet and to our ancient role as the Garden’s caretakers.

A noetic biology will also embrace the power of epigenetics. Epigenetics, which literally translates as “control above the genes,” is a newly recognized second genetic code that controls the activity and programming of an organism’s DNA. This new hereditary mechanism reveals how behavior and gene activity are controlled by an organism’s perception of its environment.

The fundamental difference between the old DNA genetic code and the new epigenetics is that the former notion endorses genetic determinism—the belief that genes predetermine and control our physiological and behavioral traits—while epigenetics recognizes that our perceptions of the environment, including our consciousness, actively control our genes. Through epigenetic mechanisms, applied consciousness can be used to shape our biology and make us “masters” of our own lives.

Fifth Floor: Energy Psychology

Holistic revisions in the supporting sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology provide for a radically remodeled fifth tier, psychology. For centuries, our materialistic perspective dismissed the immaterial mind and consciousness as an epiphenomenon of the mechanical body. We perceived that the action of genes and neurochemicals—the hardware of the central nervous system—were responsible for our behaviors and our dysfunctions.

The foundation of quantum mechanics, vibrational chemistry, and epigenetic control mechanisms, however, provide for a profound new understanding of psychology: The environment along with the perceptions of the mind controls behavior and the genetics of biology. Rather than being “programmed” by our genes, our lives are controlled by our perceptions of life experiences!

The switch from Newtonian to quantum mechanics changes the focus of psychology from physiochemical mechanisms to the role of energy fields. Energy psychology would focus on the software of programming consciousness rather than the physiochemical hardware that mechanistically expresses behavior. Energy psychology directly impacts subconscious programming rather than trying to manipulate genetics, physiology, and behavior. This new understanding will also help parents to recognize the power that fundamental perceptions have on programming the subconscious mind. This recognition can then lead to developmental experiences that will enhance the health, intelligence, and happiness of our children.

Penthouse: Noetic Science, A View from the Top

Such renovations to each floor of traditional science not only strengthen the building but also support a new tier, an all-encompassing field known as noetic science. Noetic science emphasizes that the structure of the universe is made in the image of its underlying field. The physical character of atoms, proteins, cells, and people are controlled by immaterial energies that collectively form that field. The cellular community comprising each human responds to a unique spectrum of the universe’s energy field. This unique spectrum, referred to by many as soul or spirit, represents an invisible moving force that is in harmonic resonance with our physical bodies. This is the creative force behind the consciousness that shapes our physical reality.

Noetic consciousness reveals that collectively we are the “field” incarnate. Each of us is “information” manifesting and experiencing a physical reality. Integrating and balancing the awareness of our noetic consciousness into our physical consciousness will empower us to become true creators of our life experiences. When such an understanding reigns, we and the Earth will once again have the opportunity to create the Garden of Eden.

Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D, cellular biologist and bestselling author, of The Biology of Belief, is a pioneering research scientist in the fields of stem cell biology and epigenetics. His most recent book, co-authored with Steve Bhaerman, is Spontaneous Evolution.

This article was first published in the Feb 2006 issue of Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness, published by the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Reprinted with permission

To See Bruce Lipton in the film Beyond Belief go to:  www.beyondbeliefthemovie.com