The Biology of Belief came about due to a life-changing moment experienced by Dr. Lipton while he was teaching at an offshore medical school in the Caribbean. He was reviewing research on the mechanisms by which cells control their physiology and behavior. He realized the cell’s life was controlled by the physical and energetic environment and not by its genes.

Upon accepting this new understanding of the nature of life, he realized his research offered incontrovertible proof that biology’s strongly held belief regarding genetic determinism was fundamentally flawed. By giving the energy-based theories their due, it gave a platform for the science and philosophy of complementary medicine. This also gave a prominent place for the spiritual wisdom of ancient and modern faiths.

Since that moment, Dr. Lipton has been passing on this paradigm-busting scientific information to hundreds of audiences throughout the world including the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The empowering information is available to everyone who reads The Biology of Belief.

The book is a ground-breaking work in the field of new biology. Dr. Lipton and others have done numerous experiments and examined in great detail the mechanisms by which cells receive and process information. This research radically changes our understanding of life. Since Dr. Lipton’s moment of clarity, the world embraces the fact that we are not bound by our genes. Rather the genes and DNA are controlled by signals from outside the cell, including energetic messages coming from our positive and negative thoughts.

Dr. Lipton draws a line in the sand. On one side is the Neo-Darwinism defining life as merely biochemical based on our genetics. On the other side is the New Biology representing life as a cooperative journey where individuals can program themselves to create joy-filled lives.

Epigenetics, meaning “control above genetics,” changes our understanding of how life is controlled. Genes are not destiny. Environmental influences including nutrition, stress and emotions, can modify genes without changing their basic blueprint. Research shows an enriched environment can override genetic mutations in mice.

Dr. Lipton believes the cell membrane is the actual brain of the cell rather than the nucleus. Science has made great gains in unraveling the complexity of the cell membrane. The book summarizes how these studies and more make evaluation of strongly held physics principles necessary. Hundreds of scientific studies over the past fifty years have consistently revealed the invisible forces of the electromagnetic spectrum on our biology.

However, Dr. Lipton makes it clear that he does not believe that simply thinking positive thoughts always leads to physical cures. It is vital to harness control of your body and your life. It is important to shift the mind’s energy toward positive, life-generating thoughts and eliminate energy-draining negative thoughts. The conscious and subconscious minds are interdependent. The subconscious mind holds our long held lessons in life and offers our knee-jerk responses. It is important to live a life of love and not a life of fear.

Another important section of the book deals with the responsibility of humans as parents to their children. These influences begin well before the baby is born and then for the rest of their lives. The unborn baby has a pre-birth life in the womb that profoundly influences their long-term health and behavior. The quality of life in the womb programs the baby’s susceptibility to coronary artery disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity and a multitude of other conditions in later life. In addition, after birth, offhanded comments like “you will never amount to much” get deeply seated in the subconscious brain and can impact the child for life. We can try all of the current methods to suppress destructive behaviors, but it is much easier to be nurtured from the beginning.

Finally, in the epilogue, Dr. Lipton shares his impressions of spirit and science. These conclusions are based upon his scientific training. This is a world of quantum physics. It is a world of Gaia in which the whole planet is considered to be one living, breathing organism, which needs to be protected from human greed, ignorance and poor planning.

Modern science embarked on a goal of control and domination of nature, rather than the worldview of spirit understanding the “natural order” living in harmony. Instead of a world of spiritual aspirations humans favor material accumulation. This has brought human civilization to the brink of spontaneous combustion by disrupting nature. The evolution of our planet has been punctuated by five mass extinctions. Each one nearly wiped out all life on the planet. Some researchers believe we are deep into the sixth mass extinction, this one being caused by humans rather than galactic forces.

Even with these rude awakenings, Dr. Lipton is an optimist. Similar pressures to human existence brought into being a new way of living. He believes that those who are raping nature will become extinct and that survivors will be those who realize that our thoughtless ways are destructive to the planet and make changes. He supports this theory via his study of fractal geometry, emphasizing the patterns seen in the whole structure and the patterns seen in parts of a structure.

Imagine a population of trillions of individuals living under one roof in a state of perpetual happiness. This actually exists – it is called the human body. If humans were to model the lifestyle displayed by a healthy community of cells, our societies and our planet would be more peaceful and vital.

In conclusion he suggests we use the intelligence of cells to propel humanity one more rung up the evolutionary ladder where the most loving do more than just survive, they thrive.