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what they’re being sold is a belief that we’re controlled by our genes, and that’s not supported by leading-edge science. My effort was really to get the leading-edge information out there. The mindset of the public has been programmed with the belief that they’re genetic automatons, genes are controlling their lives, they’re victims, everything like that. But the main thing is, the leading-edge science—what I’m talking about—has been established for at least 15 years. It’s time to get it out to the public because that’s where it gets used.
Science of Mind: This relatively new science that you write about is called epigenetics. Would you explain what that is?
Bruce Lipton: Epigenetics is the science that shows that genes are not controlled by themselves, genes are controlled by the environment. It’s been around for about 15 years, and it’s now just finally peeking its little head around the corner. I’ll give you an example. The American Cancer Society recently released a statistic that said 60 percent of cancer is avoidable by changing lifestyle and diet. This is from an organization that for the last 50 years or so has been looking for cancer genes. And now it’s coming out and saying, it’s the way you live, it’s not the genes. We’ve been focusing on cancer as a genetic issue, but only 5 percent of cancer has genetic linkage. Ninety-five percent of cancer really doesn’t have a linkage to genes. The reason [for saying there is a genetic link] is, it’s physical, tangible, so let’s work on that. What about the 95 percent who get a cancer and there’s no genetic linkage? It’s not easy to do experiments on anything you can’t physically focus on.
Science of Mind: So genetic determinism—the idea that we’re all controlled by our genes—is fatally flawed, as you say in the book.
Bruce Lipton: Yes.
Science of Mind: You also wrote about Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and his theory of evolution—that we survive through cooperation, rather than the later Darwinian idea of competition and survival of the fittest. Just as our all our trillions of cells must cooperate to keep our body operating properly, we humans can’t survive without massive amounts of cooperation with one another and with our environment.
Bruce Lipton: Right away, as soon as you said cooperation, you were in violation of Darwinian theory, which is competition and struggle. It’s a misinterpretation, in fact. There’s current science that says that whole belief is wrong. That belief you just talked about, the nature of cooperation and community, is actually the underlying principle of evolution.
Science of Mind: This relatively new science that you write about is called epigenetics. Would you explain what that is?
Bruce Lipton: Epigenetics is the science that shows that genes are not controlled by themselves, genes are controlled by the environment. It’s been around for about 15 years, and it’s now just finally peeking its little head around the corner. I’ll give you an example. The American Cancer Society recently released a statistic that said 60 percent of cancer is avoidable by changing lifestyle and diet. This is from an organization that for the last 50 years or so has been looking for cancer genes. And now it’s coming out and saying, it’s the way you live, it’s not the genes. We’ve been focusing on cancer as a genetic issue, but only 5 percent of cancer has genetic linkage. Ninety-
Science of Mind: So genetic determinism—the idea that we’re all controlled by our genes—is fatally flawed, as you say in the book.
Bruce Lipton: Yes.
Science of Mind: You also wrote about Jean-
