The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles [Hardcover]

This book by a cell biologist updates you on what you thought you knew about DNA, RNA and the behaviour of cells. It could have been dull academic reading, but Bruce Lipton's style and attitude make this a refreshing and fascinating read.
I have shelves full of self-development books claiming to 'change your life'. This book explains to me, at the level of cellular memory, why they don't work, what's missing from the formula. And what I can do about it.
More importantly, it is a wake-up call to orthodox doctors, drug companies and genetic engineers who are meddling with life like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Their science is, it is claimed, based on a Newtonian, Darwinian mechanistic view that was outdated science 70 years ago but is still being accepted without question today by graduates of the life sciences and medical schools.

It is a life-affirming, fascinating book and I am actively promoting it among all my friends. I thoroughly recommend this important book.

I'd put this book up there with Pert's "Molecules of Emotion", various of Chopra, and others based less on the esoteric nature of things, but more on scientific fact.

The book shows that there *is* another way to look at things, rather than just accepting blindly the [scientific] dogmas of our predecessors. If you're looking for that link between science and spirituality, then start here.

The book takes the reader on an exciting journey of discovery and revelation, challenging long-held beliefs on certain aspects of Biology and Physics, to arrive at a radically new and different explanations for how our DNA - and ultimately our very being - happen to be.

The author has taken a few knocks in life - as have most of us - and this comes through in the writing. However, those 'knocks' have clearly realigned his traditional academic conditioning and outlook on to a course of independent, pure creativity within his area of expertise, without the constraints of academic funding or peer-review looking over his shoulder all the time. Spending time in the Caribbean obviously gave him this break, and while other academics would probably look down on this judgmentally as a retro-step, it provided the fertile ground for this type of change to take place.

The book gave me the Biology 101 overview that I so desperately needed. As a physicist, I was able to fill-in the blanks when it came to the Quantum Mechanics side. As a spritualist, it all made such wonderful sense when the two came together.

Fantastic, A-1, thanks for such a great read.

In a nutshell: If your mother was stressed-out or otherwise in some kind of unhappy/angry/fraught/traumatic state when she was pregnant with you, or your parents (if together) were often violently arguing, and then once you were born you were deprived of any love/affection/encouragement/support, then sorry, but the die has been cast and you will have an unhappy life, always be a failure, never succeed at anything you want to do, no matter how intelligent you are or what good ideas you may have. Something will always get in the way or otherwise prevent it from happening.

If you try a plethora of self-help and positive thinking techniques/affirmations, whatever, you will merely be at war with yourself and suffer dreadful anxiety as a result.
In fact, he mentions a movie to illustrate his point, whereby a gifted pianist, trying to overcome the deep-rooted fears put there by his over-protective father (victim of Holocaust) that he would only be safe if he never strayed far from home, the pianist managed to travel the world, presumably fears overcome with positive thought, succeeded in giving the performance of his life, only to go insane immedietely afterwards and never recover, because, according to Lipton, he had dared to try and overcome the negative 'programming' laid down in his mind since birth.

So, in spite of the talk about cells being affected by thought, he states that once any bad, early, instructions were fed into you, (example: you're worthless/never amount to anything/you're not loved, etc) then sorry, but the damage is now done, you're beyond hope and doomed to have a traumatic, unhappy life and nothing you can do about it. Positive affirmations won't work because nothing reaches the subconsious, not even any self-help techniques you may try - oh, except for one thing! - And that is something that has been 'invented' by his friend, but you've got to go and buy his friend's book to find out how that works. Then you will have to sign-up for one of his friend's courses because Lipton points out that the book alone won't be enough.

The book in question is 'Psych-K' and the bad reviews for it seem to say it all!

So, to sum up, what Lipton appears to be doing, apart from repeat the view that thought can affect cells (hardly a new concept nowadays) is to sell you the idea that if you were already unfortunate enough to have been neglected/abused/starved of love & affection, always put down or otherwise criticised/blamed, you are doomed, and the only technique that can 'save' you is what his friend is going to tell you about in his book, but then, really you have got to attend his expensive courses as you really cannot do it yourself!

This seems to me to be yet another excercise in some author trying to cash-in on people desperately looking for ways to improve their lives.

Lipton mentions much in the way of truth, but then I don't need him to tell me about the fact that pharmaceutical companies are among the richest organisations in the world, and that prescription drugs are big business for those behind them (doctors in pockets of drug companies, etc) dangers of medically-prescribed drugs, etc, etc, I would have thought that most people are perfectly capable of working that out for themselves, it doesn't take a genuis to see all this if you only stand back and look at how the 'system' works, (or rather doesn't work) surely most of us can see quite plainly what a racket it all is, (invent names for variations in personality, create a drug for it, and so on, it's called the medicalisation of normality) Lipton says all this too, and I agree, but then I already worked it out for myself, I didn't need to buy a book just to see the author agree with me; what Lipton does is say all this, which is true, and he explains the damage that could have been done to anyone through bad parentling or traumatic early experiences, promises to tell you what you can do about it, but then goes on to say that actually you can't do anything about it, but that it can teach you not to do the same to any kids you may have, to give them a chance of having a good life, but you can't alter what damage may have been done to you, unless for the one thing that may help - his friend's 'Psych-K' techniques.

Sorry for writing a negative review, I would much rather say something good if it warrants it, and I so much wanted to feel positive about this book. I had to wait until I got to the epilogue before Lipton even mentioned anything that could be done to help people already damaged, and then it was only to try and sell his friend's book and get people signed-up for the course.

Really, if you're looking for ways to overcome inner self-sabotaging problems, you'll be better off buying a good book on Energy Pyschology, EFT techniques, (Emotional Freedom Techniques) though avoid Carol Look's book unless you already know all about EFT, as her book presupposes that you know exactly where to tap and if you have not learnt about it first, hers is not a good book to start with.

As for the book being reviewed here, (Biology of Belief) starts promising but ends up disappointing. You could even feel very depressed, thinking you were going to find answers, only to be told you're actually beyond help.

I can recommend "You Can Heal Your Life", and "I Can Do It", both by Louise Hay, far more positive and hopeful and helpful, and the latter comes with a very good CD too.

Another early book on similar lines to Lipton's, though may be difficult to obtain now, is "The Unknown Spirit" by Jean Charon. It was one of the first books I read on these kind of metaphysical matters, and is very interesting, though there is no mention of anyone being damaged or beyond help, it is mainly about the nature of 'everything, and how mind, spirit, and matter are all intertwined and how the electrons may contain more than we realise.