Skilled Relaxation Archives

SISITYO? Archive in SR. (REFERENCE.)

----- Original Message -----

Happiness And Optimism 'Can Change Your DNA'
Delving Into Mind Over Matter
By Claire Smith
The Scotsman - UK
12-3-4

It was during a weekend of fire-walking in the Welsh hills that
scientist David Hamilton decided to change his life.

As an organic chemist with a major pharmaceutical company, he was on
a good salary, developing a new generation of drugs by synthesising
molecules found in nature. But Hamilton was never convinced that man
could improve on nature, and instead was becoming more and more
fascinated by the potential healing power of the mind. So, inspired by
his body's ability to withstand heat during fire-walking, he began a
quest to investigate the mysteries of the mind-body connection. It was
the beginning of a journey which brought him into contact with
alternative therapists, spiritual teachers and faith healers, and was
to inspire him to try and fill Hampden stadium with thousands of
people all thinking positive thoughts.

He also began hosting seminars where he encouraged people to believe
in the power of their mind to positively improve their health.

Unlike many self-help gurus, Hamilton backs his arguments with
scientific research and combines his work with a post as a part-time
lecturer in chemistry at Glasgow University.

In his first book, It's The Thought That Counts, due to be published
next year, he will put forward the scientific arguments about the
mysterious mind-body connection and argue that powerful human states
such as happiness and optimism can actually change your DNA.

"I'm interested in the whole self-improvement thing but I am the only
scientist talking about it," he says.

His interest in the power of the human spirit began when he was
working as an organic chemist for a major pharmaceutical company. Put
in the fast-track by the company because of his skill in the field,
Hamilton worked on creating new drugs by re-creating molecular
structures found in nature with slight differences in order to develop
new drugs. "You study nature's molecules and re-create them slightly
differently. You might make 10,000 versions of the same molecule and
study the effects," he says. "The idea is to take nature and improve
on it."

However, he was not sure that was the right approach. He was also
becoming uneasy about the way pharmaceutical companies were operating,
particularly in the developing world, and became fascinated by the
placebo effect, the scientific principle which shows that in drug
trials, people given sugar pills often recover just as well as those on
other medication. "On average, placebo effects cure anything between
30 to 90 per cent. That has been written up in many scientific
journals. I thought, 'Why not see if you could extend it'," he says.

On a weekend retreat with Tony Robbins, the pioneer of fire-walking,
Hamilton decided it was time to change his course in life. "When you
walk on fire for the first time you feel incredibly euphoric. At the
end of it I felt like I could do anything, and, more specifically,
that I could live my dream."

He set up New Awakenings, giving talks and workshops about the power
of the mind over the body. While many new-age types talk about positive
thinking, Hamilton is different, in that he gives listeners a view
based on the latest developments in chemistry, biology and physics. By
presenting arguments backed by science, he hopes to motivate people to
work on their minds in order to improve their health: "With faith hope
and determination people can change the state of their health, life
and world".

At the end of 2000, Hamilton set up Spirit Aid, with the actor David
Hayman, to stage a Live Aid-style event at Hampden stadium, Glasgow,
where inspirational spiritual teachers from different traditions would
address the crowd between musical acts.

The plan foundered after 18 months, leaving Hamilton in a perilous
financial state. Undeterred, he began work on a book - aiming to bring
a scientific approach to self-help.

"I have found around 500 scientific papers from mainstream academic
journals which directly talk about the effect that thought, feeling and
faith have on the body's systems," he says.

Recent research into spontaneous remissions from cancer found that a
radical change of belief system seemed to be a common factor. While
few would argue with the idea that a good attitude can speed the
healing process, Hamilton believes emotions, such as happiness, can
change DNA.

What is surprising is that a growing body of scientific thought
appears to agree with him.

As an example, Hamilton quotes the work of Eric Kandel, joint winner
of the 2000 Nobel prize for medicine, who carried out pioneering work
into the way genes can be switched on or off by social influences.

Kandel's conclusion is that many genetic differences between people
are influenced by society and conditioning, rather than incorporated in
the genetic makeup of the parents.

Hamilton says: "About 99.9 per cent of our genes are exactly the
same. The differences between us are determined by whether our genes
are switched on or off.

"There is a whole branch of medicine called psycho-neuro-immunology,
which studies the effect of thoughts and emotions on our biochemistry.
The biochemistry is intimately connected with the DNA, so if these
biologichemical components are affected by thoughts and emotions then
thoughts and emotions must also affect our DNA."

He also cites a well-known scientific study of rat pups which showed
that two separate growth hormones are switched off in those deprived
of a mother's touch. By pulling together the evidence that love and
kindness can have a positive effect on health, Hamilton hopes to make
people more aware of their own healing power.

The most common reaction to his seminars is to be told that people
have always believed in his message, but that he has given them more
confidence in their ideas. "I wrote the book to give scientific
credibility to what most people already know," he says. "The most
powerful cure for anything is faith, hope and determination."

- It's The Thought That Counts will be published by Hamilton Press
next year

©2004 Scotsman.com

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1386262004