When we are conceived is when we begin taking in information from our environment. And then once we're born, our brains are like little sponges that soak up information from all around, from everyone and everywhere. We don't limit what we take in, and we have no particular filter to leave out some of the information we really don't need. Our sole purpose is to capture everything we will need to know in order to survive. This is our biology. This is how we work.
For the first twenty years of life, we are forced to accept that our worth comes from the responses of those outside of ourselves; mom, dad, teachers, coaches, and so on. We are trained to look to others for how we're doing in our life. It isn't until we're seven that we even begin to edit all the information we've taken in up to that point. And, we do this editing based on our experiences. In other words, if dad isn't trustworthy, we won't edit information on him. If our environment feels safe, then we can begin to edit the information that we no longer need in order to feel safe.
When we become adults, all of that information comes with us, including things that might have been said to us, over and over again. For me, my mother was always saying, "You're never satisfied." It was an innocent enough statement, and she never realized how I was taking it in every time she said it. And guess what? For fifty years, I was never satisfied. I've had to work on changing this belief.
Lipton found in his lab that even a single cell will respond more readily to its outer environment than it will to its own DNA. This has some staggering implications.
He goes on to say, "...the protein switches in the cell membrane represent fundamental molecular units of perception." And...he says, "the fact that perceptions control behaviour at both the cellular and the human level - is the real secret to life!"
From our biology, from our need to survive, we are a macrocosm of intricate responses to influential forces within the microcosm, not the least of which are the forces we recorded as a child; those little things, and some big things too, that we always heard or always saw as a child that served to limit us as adults. Thoughts are energy, and thoughts are perceptions, which means thoughts have power and control our behaviour. Now that's a thought, isn't it?
So, the good news is that we don't have to remain victims of the information we gathered as children. And, contrary to what we've been led to believe, it's not that difficult to let go of those beliefs, or to 'edit' them from our subconscious. In fact, Lipton goes on to say, "The power for change is within us."
There is hope...