The MindBody Self

We know that the mind influences the body, but what seems to be ignored in the life sciences is what influences the mind. I will explain why culture is what influences the mind. I’ll also show why our cultural beliefs are more powerful than our genetic endowment, and how growing older is merely the passing of time, whereas aging is what we do with our time based on the beliefs we assimilate from our cultures. Rather than being genetically sentenced with family illnesses, we have the capacity to change how our genes express disease as well as the causes of health, based on how our brain learns to culturally perceive the world. My theory and practice of mind-body science is based on research that investigates the healthy brains, the exalted emotions (compassion, empathy, love), and the elevated cognitions (honor, admiration, cooperation). As Homo sapiens, our immune system has 150,000 years of accumulated wisdom that has allowed it to evolve from a protector against pathogens to an intelligent interpreter that confirms the cultural beliefs that we choose to engage.

1. Gene expression is affected by cultural interpretations. The immune system is more than a protector against pathogens. It confirms the beliefs we choose to endorse.
2. The immune system has morals. The brain interprets the ethical beliefs we learn from our cultures and transduce them to the immune, endocrine, and nervous system.
3. Bioethics is more than a philosophy of moral conduct. It is literally the biological expression of moral conduct.
4. The causes of health are inherited and expressed based on the culturally determined horizons that limit our beliefs. As Modern Humans we have over 150,00 years of accumulated wisdom of what maintains health.
5. Cultures significantly determine how the causes of health or the learning of illness are expressed.
6. Biocognitive science studies the outliers of the normal curve. Conventional science studies averages at the expense of individual differences. Researching outliers provides valuable individual characteristics missed on group research. These individual characteristics help clarify exceptions in prognosis of illness, spontaneous healing, individual components of longevity, and much more.

In these turbulent times, just about every solution you can think of has been put forth by someone, somewhere, as a way to calm the waters and live with more happiness and ease. But the fact is you cannot think your way to a better life. Change isn’t something your mind can accomplish alone. It calls for mind and body to work together in a deeper unity than you may ever have imagined.

Neuropsychologist Mario Martinez is a pioneer in the science of the mindbody—his term for that essential oneness of cognition and biology—and a passionate advocate for its power to reshape our lives, if we work with it consciously. In The MindBody Self, he builds on the foundation he laid in the critically acclaimed MindBody Code to explore the cultural conditions that coauthor our reality and shape every aspect of our lives, from health and longevity to relationships and self-esteem. Then he offers practical tools we can use to shed outworn patterns and create sustainable change.