The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles

by Bruce H. Lipton

The limbic system offered a major evolutionary advance through its ability to sense and coordinate the flow of behavior-regulating signals within the cellular community. As the internal signal system evolved, its greater efficiency enabled the brain to increase in size. Multicellular organisms gained increasingly more cells that were dedicated to responding to an ever-wider variety of external environmental signals. While individual cells can respond to simple sensory perceptions such as red, round, aromatic, and sweet, the extra brainpower available in multicellular animals enables them to combine those simple sensations into a higher level of complexity and perceive “apple.” Fundamental reflex behaviors acquired through evolution are passed on to offspring in the form of genetic-based instincts. The evolution of larger brains, with their increased neural cell population, offered organisms the opportunity not only to rely on instinctual behavior, but also to learn from their life experiences. The learning of novel reflex behaviors is essentially a product of conditioning.