How often have you used excuses or justifications such as “It’s just how I am” or “it’s how I’ve always been”? As if that is the way it is and that’s that. You’ve probably heard the phrase “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. Everything is in the eye of the beholder and there is no particular way that anything is, regardless of how convinced of the “fact” you might be. It just isn’t so. If this sounds like gibberish, stay with me. It’s grounded in science.
Biological determinism debunked out with excuses and justifications
For years scientists have studied DNA. Every cell consists of 50% DNA and 50% protein. For the most part the scientists studied the DNA, discarding the protein believing DNA was the command center of the cell.
Firstly, what scientists have discovered is without a signal from the environment, nothing happens. Secondly, the cell has to first perceive a signal from the environment for anything to happen. It’s through the cell’s perception of the environment that the cell behaves in a particular way as it responds to its environment.
What it means is that your perception of an event, your environment and how your perceive you is the major determining factor in how you react and respond to it. You start to see things a certain way. For example, let’s say you see yourself a particular way, and then that becomes ALL you see. It plays out like this, something happens and it doesn’t go as planned, enter a negative thought, “I am…” fill in the blank “…..”. Thereafter, the cycle of looking for evidence to support this begins thereby creating a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
It creates more evidence for how you are, how something is lining up and the necessary excuses and justifications for why things are the way they are. It is not too far of a stretch from there to believe that is the way it’s going to stay!
“The motive of the viewer determines what is seen.”
David Hawkins
The scientific back story
If we transfer this to the human level, perceptions become beliefs. Our beliefs select our genes which selects our behaviour. This is life changing. Beliefs switch on your genes based on perception hence, “the motive (perception) of the viewer determines what is seen”.
Dr Bruce Lipton’s work debunks a lot of biological determinism. Conventional belief states that the nucleus is the command center of a cell because that is where the DNA is. However, if the nucleus is removed from the cell it continues to live and functions normally and the behaviour is not altered. Interesting… Bottom line is that the genes do not control behaviour. If that were the case we would need 120 000 genes to make a human and yet there are over 30 000 instead. So how do we account for the missing 90 000 genes?
Perception is everything
If the cell is cut off from the environment, there is no behaviour. Therefore, your life shows up in how you respond to your environment. Notice I said respond not react. It has everything to do with how you perceive the signal from the environment. You are scanning the environment looking for signals (evidence). Behaviour is related to the signal. No signal means no behaviour and so it is perception controls behaviour.
I reflected on Dr Bruce Lipton’s work and have seen many examples where the outcome (effect) shifted only when my perception also shifted. I have long heard “shift your perception and you will change the outcome” and that every situation is based on how you view it. When I have been a victim to the circumstance or unwilling to acknowledge my part in an outcome, I have been slow to accept this idea and this has kept me stuck.
The amazing part is that “my perception becomes my reality” and my excuses and justifications are holding me back is now backed up by science and that makes it hard to refute.
Key Points:
- Perception not DNA is the driver of behaviour
- You are always looking for evidence to support your perception (excuses and justifications)
- Change the way you view things and everything changes as your response changes to your environment.
If you are interested in exploring this further,grab some popcorn and watch the full documentary on YouTube.