The DNA of Healing

Book Excerpt: From Chapter One

1

Your DNA Storybook

     How can we consciously create the life we want? What role do our emotions and belief systems play in our health? Where do our belief systems originate and how can we work with them to create healing and a more meaningful and satisfying way of life? My lifelong quest to find answers to these questions has taken me to the frontier of the mind-body connection.
     Investigation into the link between mind and body has exploded in the 30 years since Dr. Herbert Benson, president of the Mind/Body Institute and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, demonstrated that relaxation techniques could reduce stress, lower blood pressure and heart rate, and improve health. Today a range of doctors, scientists, and researchers in the fields of mind-body medicine, quantum physics, psychoneuroimmunology, and vibrational healing are providing strong evidence of the link between our emotions and our health and well-being.
     In the midst of this revolution, Caroline Myss articulated a key healing principle in her book Anatomy of the Spirit, one that underlies energetic healing techniques from ancient to modern times: Our biography becomes our biology. ?Our bodies contain our histories?every chapter, line, and verse of every event and relationship in our lives,? she explains. ?Every thought you have had has traveled through your biological system and activated a physiological response.?1 We know, for instance, the effect of intense fear or rage?our heart rate increases, we clench our teeth, and our blood pressure rises. Myss says that among the experiences that carry emotional energy into our body?s system are past and present relationships, profound or traumatic memories and experiences, and belief patterns and attitudes. ?The emotions from these experiences become encoded in our biological systems,? she says, contributing to the formation of our cell tissues and becoming stored in our cellular memory.2
     Another step in our evolving view of the mind-body link came from Dr. Candace Pert, an internationally reputed neuroscientist. In her landmark work, Molecules of Emotion, Dr. Pert establishes the biomolecular basis for our emotions and helps us understand exactly how emotions affect health. She found that the major systems in the body form a vast network. What carries information between these systems, linking them together, are neuropeptides and their receptors, what she calls the biochemicals of emotion. These ?messengers? are in constant communication with the immune system. In effect, she says that emotions are the link between mind and body.
     Based on this scientific research, it is time to transcend our concepts of ?the power of the mind over the body,? states Dr. Pert. ?In light of my research, that phrase does not describe accurately what is happening. Mind doesn?t dominate body, it becomes body?body and mind are one.?3 We must start seeing our emotions, she says, ?as cellular signals that are involved in the process of translating information into physical reality, literally transforming mind into matter.?4 In other words, the mind and body communicate through molecules of emotion.
     From the work of pioneers like these, we know that our emotions impact our bodies? cells and tissues and that they influence our health. Yet the leading edge of the frontier goes further, and deeper, still. Revolutionary research is showing that our emotions impact us at the most basic level of our DNA, a finding that has far-reaching ramifications.

Our Genes Respond to Emotion
     Geneticists have known for some time that environmental ?stresses? can affect genes and cause mutations. In the 1940s, American geneticist Barbara McClintock made an astounding discovery that wasn?t fully recognized until much later. In 1983, she won a Nobel Prize for her discovery that genes could change their position on a chromosome in response to stress. In her Nobel lecture, she said that ?shocks? to genetic material (anything from accidents within the cell to viral infections to altered surroundings) ?forced the genome to restructure itself? in order to overcome the threat. (A genome is the total genetic material of an organism.)
     ?The sensing devices and the signals that initiate these adjustments are beyond our present ability to fathom,? said McClintock. She encouraged scientists to move forward to determine ?the extent of knowledge the cell has of itself, and how it utilizes this knowledge in a ?thoughtful? manner when challenged.? She called the genome ?a highly sensitive organ of the cell? that is capable of ?sensing the unusual and unexpected events, and responding to them.?
     At the close of her Nobel lecture, McClintock noted, prophetically, that scientists in the future would undoubtedly focus on the genome ?with greater appreciation of its significance.? In making her discoveries, McClintock had initially worked with plants, but scientists later recognized that the mechanism she had identified?genes moving around on chromosomes in response to stresses?could very well contribute to human evolution by creating new mutations. Just as important, this research showed that our genetic code is not static but is affected by stresses in its environment.
     As it turns out, new research is starting to prove that stresses in our environment do indeed alter our DNA. A landmark study released in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in December 2004 indicated that major life stresses can actually damage the telomeres (the sections of DNA at the tips of chromosomes) inside the body?s immune cells, decreasing the cells? lives. The study compared a group of women caring for children suffering from serious chronic conditions to a group of women with healthy children. An interesting feature of the study is that the results were strongly related to the perception of emotional stress. Women in both groups who felt they were undergoing the highest stress levels had telomeres comparable to someone ten years older than they were.
     In a Washington Post article on this important finding, Dr. Dennis Novack of Drexel University College of Medicine said the new study showed that mind and body are not separate, that ?the very molecules in our bodies are responsive to our psychological environment.?5 While more research is still needed, the study does point to a direct relationship not just between chronic stress and our health but between stress (or emotions) and our genes.
     The evidence doesn?t stop there. Other scientific breakthroughs, from an entirely different angle, also show the link between our emotions and our DNA. Nationally recognized researchers Glen Rein, Ph.D., and Rollin McCraty, Ph.D., working with the HeartMath Research Institute, have shown that focused, loving feelings and specific intentions altered samples of DNA in solution and produced biological effects in and out of the body. In one study, those who were a part of the experiments were able to cause the DNA to wind or unwind, matching their specific intention. The winding of the DNA helix is associated with DNA repair and the unwinding precedes cell division. In one case, the person being studied was able to affect the condition of the DNA when the sample was half a mile away. As a result of studies like this, researchers have hypothesized, though not yet proven experimentally, that it may be possible through conscious heart-focused intention to influence our cell-level processes and even to change the primary structure of DNA?our genetic code.
     These exciting studies correspond to work I have been doing for the past 20 years that shows that our emotions and beliefs?and those we have inherited?affect our DNA. Like these researchers, I have found that our DNA is not a fixed code but a flexible code. In fact, I have found that by using specific techniques, we can replace flawed patterns with new, positive patterns. In effect, negative thoughts and emotions are like the environmental ?stresses? Barbara McClintock spoke of; they affect what she called our ?highly sensitive? genetic material, which is capable of ?sensing the unusual and unexpected events, and responding to them.? In short, our genes respond to emotions?for better or for worse.
     The opposite, I have found, is also true: Our DNA affects our emotions, attitudes, and behaviors. Scientists are verifying that our genes pass on to us much more than physical traits. In 2001, a team of scientists in Barcelona discovered that a genetic mutation of chromosome 15 makes people more susceptible to panic attacks and anxiety disorders. This tells us that rather than being an imaginary illness or a psychological defect, a phobia can result from a mutation in our genes. In addition, Dean Hamer, molecular biologist and head of the gene structure and regulation section at the National Cancer Institute, says that faith is deeply rooted in our DNA?that we inherit a predisposition to be spiritual. In his book The God Gene, he claims that a variation of the gene called VMAT2, which he has dubbed ?the God gene,? plays a small but key role in the spiritual tendencies that are hardwired into our genes. If phobias can stem from our genes, what other attitudes are a result of a genetic predisposition? If spirituality can be inherited, what other feelings and behaviors are passed on through our DNA?

Beliefs and Healing
     After the revolutionary breakthroughs in science and genetics of past years, we are now facing a new and exciting frontier?one that goes beyond exploring how emotions and thoughts affect our health. This new frontier weds energetics, emotions, and genetics. It brings together science and self-healing. It asks us to confront new questions: Beyond our physical traits, what kind of information is encoded in, and passed on through, our genes? How do our thoughts and emotions affect the sensing devices and signals inside our genes? And how can we use this information to heal ourselves?
     These questions spurred me to dig deeper into the dynamics of DNA. I started my journey, as many of us do, with a health crisis that catapulted me onto a path of self-healing and examining the role of my belief systems. Looking back over my life, I realize that I knew all along I could heal myself naturally, starting with something that happened to me when I was ten years old. Growing up as the eldest of four children, I often cooked to help my mother. One Saturday morning, I was in the kitchen frying bacon on a pancake griddle with one hand and making toast with my other hand. I picked up the pancake griddle to move the bacon grease to the sink and the handle broke. The hot grease poured down the front of my body from my hip to my foot.
     The pain was so intense, I didn?t know what to do. So I screamed and started running down the street. My parents ran after me, brought me back home, and rushed me to the hospital. By the time we arrived, the burnt skin all up and down my right leg had peeled off. I had third-degree burns that were excruciatingly sensitive and painful.
     At the hospital, my leg was packed with ointment and wrapped. For three months, my mother wouldn?t let me walk on my leg at all because she said that was an important part of my leg healing perfectly. She kept my leg wrapped and padded and she carried me everywhere. I knew the leg would heal perfectly because nobody told me it wouldn?t. Nobody, including my mother, talked to me about scarring, so I was free of that belief?until I returned to school.
     When I rejoined my fourth-grade class, I still had a few bandages on my leg. The little boy sitting next to me looked at me and said, ?You?re going to be so ugly when they take those bandages off.? I just stared at him and said, ?What are you talking about?? ?You?re going to have scars all over your leg and we?ll call you ugly,? he shot back. Puzzled and terribly upset, I told my mom about it as soon as I got home. She simply said, ?That?s not true at all. Your leg has healed perfectly. Scarring only happens to people who like scars. You don?t.? Today I don?t have one scar on my leg. I don?t have one sign of that burn. Even as a child, the universe was showing me that we can heal ourselves and that our belief systems play an important part in that healing.
     As an adult, I had to be reminded of my healing potential. I was living the American dream and then all of a sudden I found myself in the hospital hemorrhaging so badly that the medical authorities told me I was going to die. We signed all the papers giving permission for surgery and told the doctors to do whatever was necessary to stop the bleeding. They found a cyst on my right ovary and removed the ovary during surgery. They also decided to remove my appendix, even though nothing was wrong with it.
     Right after the surgery, the doctor told me I needed to have a hysterectomy. The operation I had just had was so painful that I didn?t ever want to go into surgery again. Only an insane person would sign up for such a thing, I thought, unless she absolutely had to do it to stay alive. I realized then that I needed to look at my life differently and I needed to find a way to heal myself. In essence, the universe was saying, ?You need to wake up now and take responsibility. You need to take an active part in creating your life.? I started searching for alternatives to Western medicine and discovered acupuncture and herbal remedies, which turned my health problems around. That was my first step in realizing that in some cases it is possible to heal ourselves without resorting to the drastic measures Western medicine tells us we need. At critical times, we may indeed need and should avail ourselves of Western medicine because it can save our lives, yet?as I was learning?alternative medicine and our own belief systems can make a big difference.

Awareness Alone Is Not Enough
     After the surgery to remove the tumor, I started to care for my body in a more natural way. Yet I still kept getting hit over the head with one wake-up call after another. Partnerships no longer worked. Relationships fell apart. Something I was unaware of was causing a pattern to repeat itself in my life and I needed to find out what it was.
     I explored many avenues and, eventually, began to study the role our beliefs play in shaping the events of our lives. This became my passion and my profession. For several years, I traveled around the country teaching people how to alter their belief systems. The organization I was working for taught that when we change our beliefs, our attitudes also change and we are then able to deal with things more effectively. The seminars we offered were wonderful and they changed many people?s lives. They changed my life.
     As I would work with participants, however, I found a recurring theme. When people saw how their beliefs were at the core of their difficulties, they felt wonderful. They were delighted to be able to see their problems through a new set of eyes and would leave the program feeling empowered. Yet when I would see them again, they would tell me the same stories. They were still thinking about that divorce, they still hated their job, their children still weren?t speaking to them, or money was still a problem. ?Why are you telling me these same stories?? I would ask, frustrated. ?If you understood and altered your belief systems, why didn?t things change??
     I was discovering a fascinating thing: Awareness alone is not enough to change a pattern. How many of us have vowed that we would not repeat a certain pattern that we didn?t like in our parents, only to find ourselves doing exactly what we said we would never do? Why do we repeat a pattern even when we do not want to?
     I studied many different modalities and I loved all of them, but none of them resulted in the permanent changes I wanted to see. This phenomenon motivated me to search for the hidden factors that would answer my questions: If awareness and a positive attitude are all we need to live healthier and happier lives, why don?t more people change more quickly? Why do we repeat patterns that we want to be rid of? Why is it so hard to change those patterns? If awareness isn?t enough, what is?
     At that time, I was fortunate to have learned from a series of people working with energy and DNA. One was Gregg Braden, whose pioneering work in the field of physics and DNA created a major breakthrough in my understanding of beliefs and emotions and how they can affect the DNA.
Through many experiences, experiments, and studies, I began to piece together another part of the puzzle?one that was hidden deep in our DNA. I found that we inherit the emotions and beliefs of our ancestors. Programmed into our very cells, these deeply embedded patterns influence our health, wealth, and relationships. Thus the reason we don?t change is, first, because the pattern itself is programmed into our cells. Second, the programs come not just from this life but from generations past. Like long-lost family secrets, our ancestral stories?hidden deep in the memory of our DNA?influence us in ways we are not even aware of. These inner programs are like tapes that keep on playing, telling us what to do and what not to do. I realized that if we could find a way to access that patterning within the DNA, we could change the programs playing on the tapes. We could regenerate and rejuvenate our lives.

Continues . . .