The Biology of Belief - Bruce H. Lipton [38]
I had been trained as a nucleus-centered biologist as surely as Copernicus had been trained as an Earth-centered astronomer, so it was with a jolt that I realized that the gene-containing nucleus does not program the cell. Data is entered into the cell/computer via the membrane’s receptors, which represent the cell’s “keyboard.” Receptors trigger the membrane’s effector proteins, which act as the cell/computer’s “Central Processing Unit” (CPU). The CPU effector proteins convert environmental information into the behavioral language of biology.
I realized in those early morning hours that even though biological thought is still preoccupied with genetic determinism, leading-edge cell research, which continues to unfold the mystery of the Magical Membrane in ever more complex detail, tells a far different story.
At that moment of transformation, I was frustrated because there was no one with whom I could share my excitement. I was alone out in the country. My house didn’t have a telephone. Because I was teaching at a medical school, I realized that there would undoubtedly be some students studying in the library. I hastily threw some clothes on and raced off to the school to tell someone, anyone, of this exciting new insight.
Running into the library, out of breath, wild-eyed with my hair flying in all directions, I was the epitome of the absent-minded professor. I spotted one of my first-year medical students and ran up to him proclaiming, “You have to hear this! This is great shit!” I remember in the back of my mind how he pulled away from me, almost in fear of this raving, mad scientist who wildly broke the silence of the sleepy library. I immediately began to spew forth my new understanding of the cell, using the complex, polysyllabic jargon of a conventional cell biologist. When I finished my explanation and was silent, I was waiting to hear his congratulations or at least a “bravo,” but nothing was forthcoming. He was now wide-eyed himself. All he could say was, “Are you okay, Dr. Lipton?”
I was crushed. The student had not understood a word I had said. In hindsight, I realized that as a first-semester medical student, he did not have enough scientific background or vocabulary to make any sense out of my apparent rantings. However, the wind was knocked out of my sails. I held the key to the secret of life, and there was no one who could understand me! I confess I didn’t have much better luck with most of my colleagues who had been schooled in polysyllabic jargon. So much for the Magical Membrane.
Over the years I gradually honed my presentation about the Magical Membrane and continued to refine it so that first-year medical students and lay people can understand it. I’ve also continued to update it with the latest research. In so doing, I’ve found much more receptive audiences among a wider range of people. I have also found audiences receptive to the spiritual implications of my eureka moment. Shifting to membrane-centered biology was exciting for me, but it wouldn’t have been enough to send me screaming to the library. That Caribbean moment not only transformed me into a membrane-centered biologist, it also transformed me from an agnostic scientist into a card-carrying mystic who believes that eternal life transcends the body.
I’ll get to the spiritual part of the story in the Epilogue. For the moment, let me reiterate the lessons of the Magical Membrane, which put the control of our lives not in the genetic roll of the dice at conception but in our own hands. We are the drivers of our own biology, just as I am the driver