Walking the Talk of Cells
Author: Bruce Lipton, Ph.D.

Walking the Talk of Cells

In my years of teaching in medical school, I had come to realize that medical students in an academic setting are more competitive and backbiting than a truckload of lawyers. They live out the Darwinian struggle in their quest to be one of the “fittest” who stagger to graduation after four grueling years in medical school. The single-minded pursuit of stellar medical school grades, without regard for the students surrounding you, no doubt follows a Darwinian model, but it always seemed to me an ironic pursuit for those who are striving to become compassionate healers.

But my stereotypes about medical students toppled during my stay on the island. After my call to arms, my class of misfits stopped acting like conventional medical students; they dropped their survival of the fittest mentality and amalgamated into a single force, a team that helped them survive the semester. The stronger students helped the weaker and in so doing, all became stronger. Their harmony was both surprising and beautiful to observe.

In the end, there was a bonus: a happy Hollywood ending. For their final exam, I gave my students exactly the same test the students in Wisconsin had to pass. There was virtually no difference in the performance of these “rejects” and their “elitist” counterparts in the States. Many students later reported that when they went home and met with their peers who attended American medical schools, they proudly found themselves more proficient in their understanding of the principles governing the life of cells and organisms.

I was of course thrilled that my students had pulled off an academic miracle. But it was years before I understood how they were able to do it. At the time, I thought the format of the course was key, and I still believe that overlapping human and cell biology is a better way to present the course material. But now that I’ve ventured into what I told you would be considered by some as wacky Dr. Dolittle territory, I think a good part of the reason for my students’ success was that they eschewed the behavior of their counterparts in the United States. Instead of mirroring smart American medical students, they mirrored the behavior of smart cells, banding together to become even smarter. I didn’t tell my students to pattern their lives after the lives of the cells, because I was still steeped in traditional, scientific training. But I like to think that they went in that direction intuitively, after listening to my praise of cells’ ability to group together cooperatively to form more complex and highly successful organisms.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I now believe that another reason for my students’ success was that I did not stop at praising cells. I praised the students as well. They needed to hear they were first-rate students in order to believe that they could perform as first-rate students. As I will detail in future chapters, so many of us are leading limited lives not because we have to, but because we THINK we have to. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Suffice it to say that after four months in paradise, teaching in a way that clarified my thinking about cells and the lessons they provide to humans, I was well on my way to an understanding of the New Biology, which leaves in the dust the defeatism of genetic and parental programming as well as survival-of-the-fittest Darwinism.

Dr. Lipton’s book, The Biology of Belief, from which this article was excerpted, is available through Amazon. There is a special package of 12 gifts available free to anyone purchasing through Amazon today. For all the details simply visit www.BRUCELIPTONbestseller.com






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Bruce H. Lipton, noted scientist and lecturer, received his Ph.D. at the University of Virginia in 1971.

While working as an Associate Professor of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine and lecturing in Cell Biology, Histology and Embryology, Dr. Lipton became especially interested in the mechanisms that control cellular behavior.

His studies revealed that the behavior and health of a cell is controlled by the way the cell’s membrane, the "skin" of the cell, interacts with both its environment and the signals sent from the brain. Lipton discovered that the membrane acts as the “brain” of the cell and tells the genes, which are more like reproductive organs, what to do. Lipton’s findings were in direct contrast with the prevailing dogma that life is controlled entirely by randomly mutating genes.

Wanting to devote all of his time to explore his revolutionary ideas, Dr. Lipton resigned his tenured position and embarked on a blank-year independent research project that centered on applying the principles of quantum physics to cellular biology.

In 1987, Dr. Lipton returned to academia as a Research Fellow at Stanford University's School of Medicine and tested his hypotheses over the next five years. His findings on the biochemical pathways connecting the mind and the cell were substantiated in two major papers. Dr. Lipton’s pioneering research not only reveals the proper role of genetics in cellular function, but it paves the way for a true scientific understanding of the dynamic relationship between the body and the mind.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------