Switch on Your Brain: The Key to Peak Happiness, Thinking, and Health (6 page)

HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

The Seven Different Types of Thinking

Visual/Spatial

Musical

Kinesthetic

Logical/Mathematical

Intrapersonal

Linguistic

Interpersonal

You Are a Thinking Being

Let’s go deeper into the brain to see how influential and real

your free will and choices are. You are a thinking being; you

think all day long, and you are even thinking while you sleep.

Daytime thinking is a building process, whereas nighttime

thinking is a sorting process. As you think, you are making

your way to a decision of some kind, whether it’s as simple

as what to eat or as complex as choosing one of several dif-

ferent courses of action you face.

All Thinking Activity Is Real

All this thinking activity is real, and it can be seen on

various types of brain imaging. When we think, marvelous,

wondrously complex, and creative things take place. Even if

you don’t fully understand what I am saying in the next few

paragraphs, be in awe of how intricately God has made us.

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Choice and Your Multiple-Perspective Advantage

Just the mind activity from your reading of the next few

lines generates electromagnetic, electrochemical, and quan-

tum action in your neurons. It causes

• magnetic fields that can be measured;

• electrical impulses that can be tracked;

• chemical effects that can be seen and measured;

• photons to be activated that can be captured on com-

puter screens;

• energy activity that can be explained using quantum

physics; and

• vibrations in the membranes of the neurons that can be

picked up by instrumentation.

This combined activity sets up an intricate and organized

sequence of actions of neurotransmitters, proteins, and en-

ergy that forms a signal. Your thinking has just created a

powerful signal that is going to change the landscape of your

brain.

You Create Signals

This signal you have just created passes through the mem-

brane of the cell, travels to the cell’s nucleus, and enters the

chromosome, activating a strand of DNA. The DNA is zipped

up, almost as though it is in a cocoon, until activated or un-

zipped by the signal. When the DNA is zipped up, it is in a

dormant or inert state. This cocoon also protects the DNA

from the rest of the intracellular environment while in this

inert state.

So, the zipped up DNA has to be opened so that the ap-

propriate genetic code needed to build the protein can be

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HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

read. As it is opened and the code is read, RNA (a type of

protein that almost acts like a photocopier) makes a
pho-

tocopy
of the code, which serves as a guide or architectural

plan to build the proteins within the
machinery
inside the

cell. This is called “genetic expression.” And these pro-

teins you have caused to be built hold the information you

have just read as a thought or a memory. You have created

substance.

Molecules are assembled into protein by the genetic in-

structions in our DNA. These instructions dictate the anat-

omy and physiology of our bodies, and we control up to

90 percent of this process through our thinking.

While scientists have brilliantly mapped the whole se-

quence of gene expression and protein assembly, they have

given very little attention to the signals that get the whole

thing going in the first place.8

The Signal That Unzips DNA

Let’s take a closer look at these signals.

1. The initiating signals that get the ball rolling come from

outside the DNA and are therefore called
epigenetic

phenomena
, which means signals that control the genes,

so they are
epi
—or over and above—the genes.9

2. When there is interference with this signal (for example,

thinking a toxic thought or eating unhealthy food),

genetic expression does not happen correctly and then

proteins do not form like they should. So, on a very

simplified level, if you have a toxic thought, the result-

ing proteins look different and act differently than if

you had a healthy thought.

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Choice and Your Multiple-Perspective Advantage

3. These signals are electromagnetic and chemical because

there is an electromagnetic and chemical component

to every biological process.

4. These signals can come from the environment inside the

body—the emotional, biochemical, mental, energy, and

spiritual, including from the thought networks inside

your brain. Or they can come from the environment

outside the body—the food, toxins, social network,

and nurturing you receive.10

Researchers estimate that about 90 percent of genes in the

DNA are working with these signals from these outer and

inner environments.11

The Switch Gene

One of the many amazing things Kandel discovered was

that we have a
switch gene
called the “creb gene,” which

we
choose
to switch on with our thoughts. So our thoughts

are the signal I am talking about in the paragraph above. I

wish I could delve further into this fascinating topic, but it

is a highly complex process and beyond the purpose of this

book, which is not meant to be a scientific tome. However, it

is still worth a brief and simple mention because it highlights

how God built choice into every sophisticated detail of our

being and, once again, gives us the opportunity to admire

him.

Here is a simple explanation of this switch gene: As in-

formation in the form of electromagnetic and chemical sig-

nals moves toward the front part of the brain, it becomes

amplified and highly active. This stimulates the release of

specialized proteins inside the cell, turning on the creb gene,

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HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

which acts like a light switch that we choose to switch on

or off by our thoughts. This switch creb gene then activates

genetic expression (the making of proteins), and we
grow

protein branches that hold our memories, which can also be

called our thoughts.12 So when we choose to switch on the

creb gene because of the thoughts we allow to permeate our

brain, protein synthesis happens and a new branch grows and

makes a connection at a synapse to other branches.

What Does All This Science Mean to You?

All this scientific and biological information is to say two

things:

1. Scientific investigation is a way of admiring God. We ad-

mire God’s grace and greatness when we get a glimpse

at how he has made us and constructed the world we

live in. This can give us a sense of peace that he is in

control.

2. Scientists are discovering precise pathways by which

changes in human thinking operate as signals that acti-

vate genetic expression, which then produce changes in

our brains and bodies. Our genetic makeup fluctuates

by the minute based on what we are thinking and choos-

ing. Clearly, then, following the advice of Philippians 4:8

will have a profound healing and regenerative impact on

our bodies and minds by affecting our genetic expres-

sion: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true,

whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure,

whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything

is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things”

(NIV). Make this truth your life choice.

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Choice and Your Multiple-Perspective Advantage

What Does the Future of Medicine Potentially Hold?

Eric Kandel, the Nobel Prize winner for his research on mem-

ory, says the following concerning treating patients in the

future: “Social influences will be biologically incorporated

into the altered expression of specific genes in specific nerve

cells of specific areas of the brain.”13 So a time is coming when

medical practitioners will include admonitions like Philip-

pians 4:8 and Romans 12:2 on their prescription pads. Part 2

of this book is designed to help you apply God’s prescription.

From the Gene Myth to the Truth

We have been living under a myth called the
gene myth
, which

locates the ultimate power over health and mental well-being

in the untouchable realm of genes, relegating them to the

level of gods. This myth has bound the mental and physical

health as well as the peace and happiness of too many people

for too long. Almost daily another headline pops up with the

highly fashionable concept of a gene for this or a gene for

that. You are an alcoholic or depressed or battle with learn-

ing disabilities because you have the gene for alcoholism or

depression or learning disabilities or whatever. Genes may

create an environment within us in which a problem may grow,

a predisposition, but they do not produce the problem; we

produce it through our choices. Our choices act as the signals

that unzip the DNA, which I spoke about earlier in this chapter.

Genes have been made out to be responsible for feel-

ings, spirituality, beliefs—even things like the enjoyment of

music—all human behavior, to the extent of determining

human affairs, human relationships, and social problems.14 In

fact, genetic predisposition has become entrenched in popular

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HOW TO SWITCH ON YOUR BRAIN

culture to the extent that phrases like “she has good genes”

and “he was born that way” are commonplace.

This thinking removes choice and accountability from the

equation and is scientifically and spiritually inaccurate. You

control your genes; your genes do not control you. Genes

may determine physical characteristics but not psychological

phenomena. On the contrary, our genes are constantly being

remodeled in response to life experiences.15

Outstanding research has recently been done by Dr. Gail

Ironson, a leading mind-body medicine researcher and

professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University

of Miami.16 She found that the most significant factor that

made a difference in healing for those with HIV was their

choice to believe in a benevolent and loving God, especially

if they also chose to have a personal relationship with a be-

nevolent and loving God. Her study ran over four years and

her determination of healing was based on the decrease of

their viral load, the amount of the AIDS virus in a sample of

blood, and the increased concentration of “helper T-cells”—

the higher the concentration, the more the body is able to

fight disease. She found that those who did not believe God

loved them lost helper T-cells three times faster. Their viral