Our DNA is NOT our Destiny

The Gene Myth: Our DNA is NOT Our Destiny   (Article by Dr. Caroline Leaf)​
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Scientific research has shown that 87-98% of mental and physical and behavioral illnesses come from our thought life, which is indubitably a large and frightening number, and contrary to what many of us have been led to believe. In fact, few human processes are turned on or off by a single gene. Most processes require many genes acting together to produce a common result. Thus, the idea fired up by the media that there is a gene for this and a gene for that is incorrect. From second to second, day-by-day, genetic cascades are turned on or off by our own thoughts and experience. Yes, that means we are largely in control!

This picture of a multiplicity of genes that fluctuate moment by moment is at odds with the picture ingrained in the public mind: that genes determine everything from our physical characteristics to our behavior. It’s a highly fashionable concept that there is a “gene for this and a gene for that”, and, in particular, it removes personal responsibility from us as individuals. This is unhealthy and contrary to what God teaches us, which is to take responsibility for the thoughts we think and choices we make. Fortunately, since the 1970s research has been challenging the “gene myth” and now we know that the genes in the neurons of our brains are activated 87-98% by our thoughts with embedded emotions, which, of course, challenges the cause and effect model of genetic causation.

We now also understand that there is an electromagnetic component to every biological process. So, genes (biological) are how information is stored (like the hard drive of a computer) and energy (electromagnetism) is about how they communicate information (this is equivalent to plugging a computer in, which activates the hard drive to a functional level). Scientists are learning more and more about what turns genes on or off, or, in other words, what influences their activation. They have found that thinking and the subsequent thoughts we build are major activators. Thoughts and feelings turn sets of genes on and/or off in complex relationships. Moreover, science is discovering that, although we have a fixed set of genes in our chromosomes, it’s principally our thoughts that influence those genes which are active. This is an amazing, fundamental spiritual principle as well: “as a man thinks in his heart, so is he”. (Proverbs 23:7)

Our thoughts and emotions shape our minds as they stimulate the formation of thought networks (neural pathways) in our brains, which either reinforce old pathways or initiate new ones. In the same way our muscles bulk up with exercise, our neurons bulk up the more we think. So what we think becomes biology; biology is genes, hormones, neurons and electromagnetic systems and all the complex interactions between them. These interactions in turn produce the words and actions we speak and perform. Our genes are being changed moment by moment by the environment of our thoughts and feelings as well as the environment of our families, homes, work, friends and where we live! We assign mental and emotional meaning to facts that are as important to gene activation as the facts themselves. Even the thoughts you are having about the coming week (a week that hasn’t happened yet and may never happen!) are wired into your brain and act as stimulus for genetic expression.

So, when all is said and done, we are very much in control, and not victims of our biology.

If you are interested in learning more, you can watch Dr. Leaf talk about the Gene Myth on her weekly show.

WATCH THE WEEKLY DR. LEAF SHOW ON TBN.
​The Dr Leaf TV show airs every Wednesday on TBN at 3.30pm PST/5.30pm CST and 6.30pm EST. It also airs Internationally.