I was fortunate to hear a presentation by Bruce Lipton, PhD, at the I Can Do It Conference this past May. I am grateful for the experience. Lipton is brilliant. He is a scientist, who at one time taught cell biology to medical students. His presentation was animated, fast-paced and precise, just as I am sure his advanced college courses once were. I have been turning his words around and around in my mind since the morning I heard them. His presentation was fascinating, to say the least.
Lipton began with a story, which I believe was written originally by novelist Paulo Coelho, as I found a version of it on his blog:
When still a baby, the elephant is tethered by a very thick rope to a stake firmly hammered into the ground. The elephant tries several times to get free, but it lacks the strength to do so.
After a year, the stake and the rope are still strong enough to keep a small elephant tethered, although it continues to try, unsuccessfully, to get free. At this point, the animal realizes that the rope will always be too strong and so it gives up.
When it reaches adulthood, the elephant can still remember how, for a long time, it had wasted its energies trying to escape captivity. At this stage, the trainer can tether the elephant with a slender thread tied to a broom handle, and the elephant will make no attempt to escape to freedom.” (7/16/07)
Lipton asked us to keep that story and its meaning in mind as he proceeded through his presentation. The next part focused on illustrating how traditional medical dogma—that we are victims of genetic determinism—is not true. Actually, he shared with great excitement, our health and well-being are determined by our environment and our perceptions. Lipton illustrated this declaration with logical, step by step delineations. His conclusion was this: If perception controls biology, then you are a master, because you can change your perceptions. You are not a victim.
The final part of Lipton’s presentation is what really gripped me psychologically. Lipton explained that the brain is divided into two parts. There is the prefrontal cortex, which is the front part of our brain where the conscious mind, or self, is located. The prefrontal cortex is slow and creative. The rest of the brain, which he called the subconscious, is fast and habitual. In fact, it is one million times faster at processing than the prefrontal cortex. Lipton explained that the conscious mind alone cannot handle the world in front of us. It must be supported by the subconscious mind. Together, they make a dynamic duo. For example, when we are driving and talking, not paying attention and arrive at our destination without remembering the journey—who was driving the car?! Our subconscious was! We don’t see our own subconscious behaviors yet they are running our life.
Here is where things get really interesting: Our prefrontal cortex, or consciousness, is the last part of our brain to develop. For the first six years of life, in fact, it isn’t even functional. For the first six years of life, children are observing and recording the operating rules for life in their subconscious. The first six years of life build the part of our brain that is responsible for 95% of our function as adults. Lipton writes in his book, The Biology of Belief, “By the time children reach adolescence, their subconscious minds are chock-full of information that ranges from the knowledge of how to walk to the ‘knowledge’ they will never amount to anything or the knowledge, fostered by loving parents, that they can do anything they set out to do” (p135). The beliefs we adopted as children, along with our programmed reactions to specific environmental cues, are now running our lives! One can override the programmed negative beliefs and negative behaviors only by developing a life from consciousness. Lipton continues, “The earlier, subconscious mind is our ‘autopilot’, the conscious mind is our manual control.” (p136).
At this point, Lipton brought up the elephant story again. Remember how the elephant learned early on that he could not struggle free of that rope? At maturity, ten times the size and strength, the elephant still believed the rope to be more powerful than his desire for freedom. This is us, living with barriers we don’t even realize we have, that were programmed by others and never challenged and found to be untrue! How about that?! If we do not live consciously, we risk operating from a skewed subconscious! Lipton writes, “The two minds are truly a phenomenal mechanism, but here is how it can go awry. The conscious mind is the ’self,’ the voice of our own thoughts. It can have great visions and plans for a future filled with love, health, happiness, and prosperity. While we focus our consciousness on happy thoughts, who is running the show? The subconscious. How is the subconscious going to manage our affairs? Precisely the way it was programmed. The subconscious mind’s behaviors when we are not paying attention may not be of our own creation because most of our fundamental behaviors were downloaded without question from observing other people” (p139).
How many times have we seen this in action? How many people have we met who talk the good talk but can’t seem to actually effect positive change in their lives? We must be vigilant in our mindfulness! Why? Because our perceptions are our reality! You see what you are looking for. If you have a negative opinion of the world, your world is negative. If you have limiting beliefs about your self, then you function in a limited way! Your programmed beliefs not only control the outcome of your day to day life, but your biology. It is not just the food you eat, the air you breath, or the chemicals you encounter, but your thoughts, too, which impact your health! Lipton was quickly running out of time at this point in the presentation, so he ended with the passionate call, “You are not a victim! You are a MASTER! We are all creators!” I add to that, If you can dream it, you can have it! Create the life you want for yourself. Follow your thoughts with conscious action! Take control of your reality! Live consciously!
Bruce Lipton, I salute you!
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To learn more about limiting beliefs, read a post of mine here or this post by Jonathan Mead who writes the blog, Illuminated Mind.
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I love the written word. I especially love quotes that stop you in your tracks when you read and absorb them. Ben Mester over at “Things I’ve Learned While Roaming the Earth” and the lovely Ingrid Maidoff, from “Tending Joy“ have posted some really special words of wisdom and happiness on their sites. Check them out!
Jodi, all I can say is you’ve left me excitedly speechless! You’ve done it again where you write something with amazing clarity, thus helping me find my own clarity to write about the same topic. (Side note: this is exactly the part of my book I’m currently writing — trying to describe how the subconscious and conscious minds work, per the Huna studies I did years ago.)
What’s more, I’ve read some of Bruce Lipton’s articles and am a big fan, myself! How exciting that you were able to see him “live.”
Part of me wants to send your blog post to everyone I know who has kids. Actually, to everyone I know, period!
The last thing I’ll say is that the words “You are a master!” are perfectly true. Just last night I was visiting with a friend who’s an incredible healer and clairvoyant. We were talking about a couple aches and pains I’ve developed in the last few days, attributed to what western medicine would say was overexertion. I knew better, though; I knew my stinkin’ thinkin’ was at fault! After talking to my friend and realizing that I was struggling internally with a balance issue, she said, “You’re fine. I don’t sense that those injuries are anything serious.” The funny thing is, I didn’t either, but I needed her to say it in order for me to go home and wake up this morning feeling PERFECT!
Our minds, our destiny. It’s about how big of a dream we want to dream for ourselves. That’s the only limiting factor.
Vigilance in mindfulness are the words that stand out to me here. I once took a yoga class where the instructor was continually telling us, her class, to keep our toes active – that basically meant lifting our toes up off the ground as we were doing whatever movement or postures with the rest of our bodies. I remember being irritated by this because I just wanted to do the yoga and not have to keep my toes up. But after doing this for awhile, I realized that by keeping my toes active, I was paying attention to what I was doing…it wasn’t a lazy yoga class like I’d originally wanted it to me, it was a lesson in mindfulness, which I’m certain was her point.
Thank you Jodi!
-genny
Jodi,
This is EXACTLY what my 17 year old stepson needs to read. I have other things, like the book “The Magic of Believing” but this has the clarity he will understand.
By any chane have you read Dr. Shad Helmstetter, “What you say when you talk to yourself?”
Awesome post. We limit ourselves based on the thoughts we believe in.
xxoo
Megan,
Thank you for the great note! I’m glad this post came at a good time for you. I will have to look into Huna now as you have me intrigued! It took a while for this to sink in and really gel for me. When I first learned this, I felt a little sad that we all have these programmed hurdles to conquer and that I am potentially programming hurdles into my children–because at first that seemed inevitable, but then when I read Lipton’s chapter on Concsious Parenting for more information, I read that our subconscious isn’t meant to be our “achilles heal” — in fact, if one is raised in a nurturing, intelligent community, with good role models all around, Lipton writes that “we could be totally successful in our lives without ever being conscious!” (p140). I do know many people who were raised this way, and they do seem to be happy, well adjusted adults who naturally flow through life without being resistant to so much and without having to undo so much. So, there is hope. We are masters!
As for your aches and pains, I am glad that you spoke to your friend and validated what you knew to be true. Next time around, you probably won’t need to do that! Have you read any books by Dr. John Sarno? (I have some posts coming up about them.) He talks about how our subconscious will create chronic aches and pains in the body to distract and protect our conscious brain from noticing deep-seated inner rage. It is also fascinating stuff. Follows the same theme here to live consciously and be vigilant about it; to face all our emotions head on, etc.
Hi Genny!
I can imagine that yoga class being so frustrating, when you were looking for it to be relaxing but what a wonderful lesson your instructor gave you–and good for you that you “got it”! Thank you for sharing your story!
Hi Peggy,
I haven’t read Dr. Shad Helmstetter or heard of him, but the title alone is eye-catching. I will check him out! Thank you!
[...] captain of my fate, the master of my destiny!” Read the rest of Jodi’s article “An Elephant, A Rope, and Programmed Beliefs,” you’ll be glad you [...]
This is a wonderful post. It left me thinking about people and their fear of being happy or their thoughts that they aren’t worthy of love or happiness regardless of the external feedback that they receive. It is as if there is something programmed within that keeps them from taking those risks and believing in themselves enough to do it.
I will have to read more about this! Great post.
Hi Jodi,
Great post! I loved it. The human brain is so fascinating and it is amazing how powerful it is and how so many of us have no idea that we can re-train our brain (the rhyme was not intended).
We truly are so much more powerful than we realize and it is amazing how we limits ourselves with the beliefs we held as children or by what society tells us to do.
I am often amazed when people do things simply because it is expected. What happened to doing something because you wanted to? Seems many people are blindly following because they forgot how powerful they truly are.
I will have to add this book to my list. Thank you so much for the information and for sharing it with all of us.
Whoa Jodi – outdid yourself with this one! Isn’t this exciting and fascinating?!! I keep blabbing on and on about how powerful our thoughts are – also how negative and limiting – just ask the elephants – but your wonderful writing and source material is outstanding!!! LOVED it!
Just wondering if you’ve ever read Joe Dispenza’s Evolve Your Brain? Sounds very similar in content. I came away with more information on how we think, how we can heal ourselves, and how we can change than probably anything I’d so far encountered.
Thank you for an absolutely wonderful post!!! And wow, anyone even thinking about having children should be MADE to read this! A little more awareness before poppin’ kids out into the world would make for a lot less psychotherapy and drugs in the future don’t you think?
What an interesting post – thanks so much !
Will be following up some of the links you’ve mentioned.
Hi Jodi,
Thanks for sharing, Bruce Lipton has been fascinating me for months now. I love how you describe his concepts with such clarity.
Thank you,
Toni
Jodi, great stuff you are writing about here. I actually have that book and it is on my reading list. I just haven’t got to it yet. I guess I’m going to have to up it in the priority.
This whole topic of the non-conscious mind fascinates me and I’ve written about it a little on my blog. Thanks for the extremely interesting information.
The Exception,
I’m glad this post resonated with you! Thank you so much for stopping by!
Hi Nadia,
Thank you for your comment! Bruce Lipton is fascinating, as is the study of the brain! His book is very science based…at the very least, I recommend reading chapter seven on “Conscious Parenting” where he goes into a lot of what I wrote about here. I found it in the metaphysical section at Barnes & Noble.
By the way, I’ve been to two bookstores now that don’t carry the cool buddhist magazines that you recommended. My search continues! Also, I ordered Saltwater Buddha–I am looking forward to reading it.
Hi Suzen,
Thank you for your comment! I haven’t read or heard of Joe Dispenza but I thank you for the recommendation. I am always looking for writers who can not only explain something’s function but also provide advice for overcoming or outwitting that function. Evolve Your Brain has been added to my “must read” list! And yes, I wish every new parent would be sent a little pamphlet in the mail with the information in this post as well as a few more life lessons! What a difference it would make!
Starry Blue Sky,
Thank you for stopping by Joy Discovered! I noticed you wrote about Bruce Lipton, too. I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on the subject!
Hi Toni,
I am so glad you stopped by Joy Discovered today! Thank you for your comment! Bruce Lipton rocks!
Hi Stephen,
Thanks very much for your comment. I have been reading your blog and like it. I’m going to poke around more for your posts on the non-conscious mind. I agree, it’s a fascinating topic!
Hi Jodi!
You know how they always say that “when the student is ready the teacher will appear”? Well, I’ve heard this story before, but have long forgotten it. Your reminder that “I” am in charge of my own life was just the message that I needed today!
Even though intellectually I get this concept, it’s amazing how easy it is to lose sight of the most important and compelling messages and life lessons. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
Much joy and gratitude to you today!
Michelle
Hi Michelle,
Thank you for your support! I love the quote “when the student is ready the teacher will appear.” I love it that all of us who blog about joy teach each other and learn from each other, too.
Peggy over at Serendipity Smiles had a post in June about her Thai kickboxing workout. She wrote, “The Professor talks about training with people above your rank and people below your rank. This allows you to be both the teacher and the student.” This is something I have carried with me since. I think we are all masters and students. Something in those words made me feel empowered (like a teacher) and at the same freed me to ask for help when I need it (like a student).
All good stuff! Have a wonderful day, thank you for stopping by!
“We must be vigilant in our mindfulness!” That is a very profound statement. It reminds me of an old quote. “The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways.” It seems like it should be such a simple thing to think about why we do what we do. But for some reason, it’s not. I agree with you completely, the power of perception is vast. Thanks so much for the kind words at the end of your post. You are very generous.
[...] have often thought of myself as being a dreamer. I read an intriguing blog post by Jodi at Joy Discovered, about the power of perception in our lives, and it intrigued me to write on the topic. Her post [...]
This thought provoking post encourages readers to take responsibility for their thoughts and feelings and realize self-empowerment is the key to reconnecting with the authentic self. Its up to each person to access light within or choose to remain in self-imposed darkness of ignorance.
Ben,
Thank you for sharing your quote!
Liara,
Ah, the light within, what a concept! Beautifully written! Thank you for stopping by today!
[...] the Rope” was retold by Dr. Bruce Lipton at a lecture I attended (you can read about that here). I wanted to write about this lecture and knew that story was an important part of the lesson [...]
Just came across this very concept myself recently. Its all about how we dont give ourselves permission to succeed.
Noah St John wrote a book called “The Secret code of success” which unlike many other self-development books really explains exactly why we sabotage ourselves, when really there isnt any need to. I heartily recommend that book as i feel its changing my life.
Anyway, great post
Hi Khuram,
Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to leave a comment. I will check out the author your recommended. The more we can learn how to be the master of our own ships—the better off and the happier our life will be.