Nice post on genetic determinism
October 29th, 2007
Deepak Chopra has written a nice blog entry on Intent Blog on the idea that everything in a person’s life is reducible to the person’s genetic code.
It is a bit surprising that Dr. Chopra includes in his post a rather controversial idea (especially for one trained in Western medicine): “Genes are affected by the environment, including upbringing and behavior.”
In biology, the notion that non-genetic traits obtained through a given environment can be passed on is associated with Lamark, and is called ’soft inheritance’. It is a sort of heresy in biology. Here is an interesting article about a researcher who provides some evidence for soft inheritance.
Our interest is in the development of the heart. A wonderful quality of the heart is that it constantly seeks development, constantly longs to move forward, toward love, harmony, and beauty; toward the perfection of its qualities. And this is true regardless of what has been given by one’s genetic inheritance.
"A powerful, authentic method for healing your emotional and spiritual heart and improving your physical health."
3 Comments
Add your own1. Desika Nadadur | I Am My Own Master - Self-Mastery for Independent Minded Seekers | October 30th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
In fact the research being conducted by Bruce Lipton, PhD on “new biology” states that environment does have influence over one’s genetic make up. See http://www.brucelipton.com/article/mind-over-genes-the-new-biology . My understanding is that the goal of all yogic practices is to unleash one’s infinite potential and bring that down to the cellular level. This means that our thought patterns have immense effect on our cellular structures and hence the genetic makeup.
Thanks,
Desika
2. Asatar Bair | October 31st, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Interesting article!
Asatar
3. Puran | November 1st, 2007 at 10:36 am
Dear Desika,
Thank you for posting the link to this article. A good resource. Susanna and I enjoy your blog. It’s important to be independent minded!
love,
Puran
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