Biological Functions

I have what I believe is a very interesting question, and one that I hope may
shed light on the potential of the mind and its effects on the body.

I am aware that there are some monks in the world that can, through deep
meditation, control some of the otherwise autonomic functions of the body.
Different body parts can be heated at will, and the heart controlled manually.
I began to wonder how far this control could be stretched, so to speak. Would
it be at all possible to willfully change, over great periods of time, physical
characteristics? Would one be able to grow hair in a different shade, or change
the pigment in their irises? Or is that beyond the brain? What other functions of
the brain are there that may be possibly exploited?

http://www.mytelekinesis.com/bio_eye.html
The site is a bit iffy though.

"im going to make my eyes like the sharingan "
lul
It's called biokinesis .

Yogi's essentially turn their bodies into chemical manufacturing machines. From what I've heard they can basically increase serotonin levels at will (as well as other chemicals), creating highs while meditating. They can control functions that are generally considering automatic or instinctive. They see their body as a machine that that is what makes it simpler for them to disassociate themselves from their ego.

While long-term physical change may be possible, I'm afraid it would be all but impossible to change hair or eye color, or natural skin tone, through thought alone. Those are issues of genetics. Genes work by telling the body which proteins to code for. These are functions independent of the brain, and are not influenced by it, and so cannot be changed through mere thought. Gene therapy may well do the job, but that technology is years away from reality.

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Originally Posted by guitarboy

[URL]It's called biokinesis .

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Huh, so it's a known thing, although the site doesn't provide very specific
information. My searches have thus far yielded meditation exercises, and the
exact mechanism by which this would be possible isn't yet clearly explained.
At least, not for things like eye or hair color. Being that the rest of the body
is controlled via the brain, I can understand how those functions can be
controlled.

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Originally Posted by grasshoppa

Yogi's essentially turn their bodies into chemical manufacturing machines. From what I've heard they can basically increase serotonin levels at will (as well as other chemicals), creating highs while meditating. They can control functions that are generally considering automatic or instinctive. They see their body as a machine that that is what makes it simpler for them to disassociate themselves from their ego.

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I have witnessed a yogi in a state of ecstasy perhaps only 6 months ago. I
see him every now and then around the beach, have heard him discuss his
practice to others on occasion, and at other times have seen him meditate.
He is old from what I make of him. Not that I wish to get off topic or
anything, but yes, I understand that yogis tend to be capable of interesting
mental abilities, not unlike those of the monks and some indigenous shamans
of the world.

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Originally Posted by Mario92

While long-term physical change may be possible, I'm afraid it would be all but impossible to change hair or eye color, or natural skin tone, through thought alone. Those are issues of genetics. Genes work by telling the body which proteins to code for. These are functions independent of the brain, and are not influenced by it, and so cannot be changed through mere thought. Gene therapy may well do the job, but that technology is years away from reality.

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And what of the kind of mental stress that causes a person to, say, grey
early (hair)? There are things the brain can do that effect the body and
indirectly effect those things that it would be otherwise unable to, is that
correct? I understand though that it should not be possible to change
something like eye color. There may yet be a way, in any case, and I'm only
trying to consider possibilities.

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Originally Posted by Invader

And what of the kind of mental stress that causes a person to, say, grey early (hair)? There are things the brain can do that effect the body and indirectly effect those things that it would be otherwise unable to, is that correct? I understand though that it should not be possible to change something like eye color. There may yet be a way, in any case, and I'm only trying to consider possibilities.

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I would have to look into this a bit more, but I'm fairly certain that greying hair (hair without pigment) is caused by certain factors blocking the production of pigment. I am also rather sure that this is and all-or-nothing sort of deal, so a person with very dark hair would find it virtually impossible to go up a few shades. As for the exact opposite (lighter becoming darker), this would be completely impossible by mental willpower alone. A series of genes determine exactly how much pigment is produced, and while some factors may block this production, it would be pretty much impossible to increase it. Interesting, though...I hadn't thought of that.

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Originally Posted by guitarboy

http://www.mytelekinesis.com/bio_eye.html
The site is a bit iffy though.

"im going to make my eyes like the sharingan "
lul
It's called biokinesis .

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Unless I'm mistaken, that article is more about tricking yourself into thinking your eyes are a different color than they actually are.

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Originally Posted by grasshoppa

From what I've heard they can basically increase serotonin levels at will (as well as other chemicals), creating highs while meditating.

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On a tangent, this is something I've managed to pull off numerous times, but I've drastically lowered its frequency thanks to the potential risk for irreversible psychological damage if abused. I'm sure that each individual who starts to alter their biological functions through conscious intent will experience some sort of change in their health, positive or negative, as they develop more and more control over these sort of things.

Because of my personal experience, I believe it's possible. However, the extent to which it can go is unknown to me, and might be unknown to even the scientific community unless we hook up a monk to an array of biological sensors and let them do their thing.

It's the changing of physical structures that interest me the most here, or at
the very least, outward appearance. To be able to change, say, bone
structure, or the texture of skin for instance.

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Originally Posted by Invader

It's the changing of physical structures that interest me the most here, or at
the very least, outward appearance. To be able to change, say, bone
structure, or the texture of skin for instance.

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Ah, now that is not likely to happen at all. Your brain controls much, but not all. It cannot reshape your physical structure; that is a domain belonging to your DNA. I guess you could give yourself a perpetual case of goosebumps, as there are nerve impulses for this, but that would be about it. Rearranging bone structure would be impossible.

Not saying you are wrong Mario, but I know many womens whose hair color changed due to hormones.

-patience

Hair colour can change easily. People who have experienced incredible amounts of stress have been known to go grey overnight despite their age.

Really, Patience? Would their hair color tend to get lighter or darker, or did it vary?

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Originally Posted by Black_Eagle

Unless I'm mistaken, that article is more about tricking yourself into thinking your eyes are a different color than they actually are.

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Meditation.

I have two guy friends who claim to have changed their appearances to something more attractive. Some drugs give me total control over all of my body functions...I'm going to experiment with changing my eye/hair color.

too bad I like my eyes and hair :( or maybe :) ?
If I knew I would be able to change it back, I would do it just to see how I would look with blonde hair and green eyes.

I would, however like to know if this could be used to change skin color. Nothing like white to black, but a little darker than I am now.

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Originally Posted by Invader

Huh, so it's a known thing, although the site doesn't provide very specific
information. My searches have thus far yielded meditation exercises, and the
exact mechanism by which this would be possible isn't yet clearly explained.
At least, not for things like eye or hair color. Being that the rest of the body
is controlled via the brain, I can understand how those functions can be
controlled.

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I can see how seratonin can be controlled--that is a neurotransmitter associated with general mental health. It's an emotion chemical. I'd think there is a limit to what you can alter. Emotion chemicals, sleep-state chemicals, heartbeat, breathing, and pupil dilation are the ones I find most viable, because you can alter them via biofeedback. Monks can do this without a machine, which is logical, because they do it by training their awareness.

Biofeedback training works by trial-and-error. A success/step toward success in a technique is noticeable immediately, either by readings on a machine, or the person's own observation. For such slow changes as hair and eye color, you have no idea if what you're doing is leading to the desired outcome. It's like trying to open a combination lock with no clues. . . You aren't getting in.

Emotion chemicals, sleep-state chemicals, heartbeat, breathing, and pupil dilation are all things that normally change through the course of the day, which is how we already have an idea of what we need to focus on to control them. Hair color and eye color, if they change at all, occur over the years, due to an accumulation of physical changes, and the change is one-way.

In short, it ain't gonna happen, cap'n.

I'm too lazy to paraphrase the book I read, but Biology of Belief has some answers for you

Bruce Lipton has spent some time studying genetics, DNA and how DNA is activated in the cell. He backs up his understanding with the scientific method, and was once himself a materialistic scientist *he know believes in spirit*

Bruce came to a number of conclusions during his study

1. belief controls biology
DNA can not activate or do anything by itself. It just sits there, until the cell decides to mess with it. The single cell only messes with DNA accordingly to signals it receives in it's environment. And ONLY when it receives certain signals in the environment does it mess with DNA.

That may be a simple no brainer for a single celled organism living in a pond, but for a human being - with what - I forgot what the number was - a trillion celled community - were talking about something much more here

because, our thoughts and emotions translate to signals in the cells environment. our overall mental state of being directly affects how cells, our cells, interact with their own DNA

2. Sadly the truth, we give ourselves diseases
there are many diseases that are genetic. certain cancers are in the gene. but these genes are dormant at birth. and can remain dormant your entire life. in other words, just because you have a disease in your genes, it doesn't mean you're going to get sick

something in the cell's environment, your body, has to give a signal to the cell to express those dangerous cancer genes. cancer genes CAN NOT randomly express themselves. only a signal in the environment of which the cell reacts to.

the biggest question is....what? you can blame food or drinks, but plenty of Americans with cancer ate the same food and drinks as anyone else. It seems Lipton believes the real culprit to cancer is stress or depression. Stress and depression is on the rise in America, and so is cancer.

While Bruce isn't necessarily offering us a cure, he is at least outlining the necessary steps you need to take to be disease free. Healthy and happy. That is, remain in a peaceful happy state of mind

3. How our Beliefs Control Biology
Why does Bruce believe, Beliefs control Biology? And not just our emotional state of being?

Just like the cell, we perceive our environment, and we also get signals from our environment. We call these signals light, smell, texture - but it's really the same mechanics as the cell. We 'perceive' the environment and react. Cells do the same thing.

But for a complex human, our perception also includes beliefs. Let's say someone plops a snake on your lap without you asking. Most people would immediately scream and be in flight or fight mode. Because they believe on a subconscious level that snakes mean death. And before they can even reason whether or not the snake actually is harmless - they are already physically reacting as if under attack, all because of a belief.

But there are a fair few of strange individuals *snake lovers*, that would scream with glee and joy. Because maybe randomly plopping a snake on their lap would be a birthday present.

The point is, we have these beliefs locked away in our subconscious mind. And it's the belief in the subconscious mind that Bruce is really talking about. While it's necessary for us to live, and to immediately react to real danger, we also take on FALSE belief systems from our parents and society.

One FALSE belief system that an entire generation of people took, was that we have NO CONTROL over our body. Bruce has proven this ideology - wrong. We do control our body, more than any current medical book will tell you.

4. All DNA is flexible
Bruce explains that our DNA doesn't have enough 'words' to make up a human being. But it does have plenty of 'letters' that can create enough 'words' to create a human.

Because DNA is more like the alphabet than a dictionary, this makes it flexible. And Bruce believes this is the key to understanding evolution. DNA is flexible. It isn't set. The single cell can actually create new 'words'. And we see this happen in bacteria. These new 'words' are the mutations that create evolution. But they WEREN'T RANDOM. (Bruce backs this up with an experiment that proves that mutations aren't random) The cell created those 'new words' accordingly to signals in the environment.

Now tie this in with the previous understanding that ONLY SIGNALS IN THE ENVIRONMENT can activate and manipulate DNA. Our mental and emotional state of being. New Agers have been harping that we can consciously evolve. Bruce, who used to think they wer quacks, now believes science is actually backing up their claims.......We can conscioulsy evovlve.

It's also important to understand the huge role the environment plays in evolution. . . . . . . . . But what kind of evolution can we expect in the environment humanity has created??

5. There are limitations to Evolution
Bruce explains how DNA is most flexible in the womb. It is in the womb that evolution really takes place. The fetus receives environmental signals from it's mother. The fetus then grows accordingly to those signals. This is so the child can be better prepared for it's environment than it's own mother who might have been born to a previous out-dated environment

But it seems at some point in time our DNA becomes more or less set. And while Bruce believes we can take part in our own evolution, that is change our DNA - the end result is actually seen in our children. As most of you probably already know, mutations in our life time probably just cause cancer.

6. Our IDENTITY and DNA are different
Bruce became a believer that we have some part of our being, that is not physically located in one spot. Call it spirit, call it the soul, or call it a field of energy. Bruce goes on to explain how there are two ways the cell can recieve information/signals.

Chemical - which is slow.....Or energy. I forgot what kind of energy, but Bruce makes it clear for our trillion celled community chemical signals are too slow for us to function. That we have an energy field. That this energy field can be detected with machinery. And, this energy field gives signals to our cells.

Bruce talks about how each of our cells has these nodes, these detectors that pick up, literally like a radio, our identity. This idenity is in the 'environment'. It is NOT within the cell. While Bruce loves his cells, he even calls them 'smart', he does not think a single cell is smart enough to decide whether or not it likes pizza. Such idenity is picked up by the cell from the environment.

That's easy enough to understand, since we are sending signals to our cells all the time. But why does Bruce believe this translates to a 'soul'?

Transplants. It's a long story, but story short. Organs from a deceased individual seem to continue to pick up the identity signals from the environment...........even if they are placed in someone elses body. The brain isn't ticking anymore. The brain is DEAD. But the organs are still receiving identity signals from some where. This is when Bruce went from Materialist to Spiritualist. We have an immortal soul. And our bodies are constantly recieving information from our soul.

7. Why you CAN'T change your hair color
To answer your original question. The answer is NO. While we do have control over our biology, and while evolution can happen in a single generation, and while our bodies pick up and recieve our identity as information - your face is not going to magically change into someone elses

There is a real limit to the interaction of consciousness and DNA. While your DNA 'words' are not set, your DNA 'alphabet' is. You can NOT change the alphabet of your DNA.

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Originally Posted by juroara

There is a real limit to the interaction of consciousness and DNA. While your DNA 'words' are not set, your DNA 'alphabet' is. You can NOT change the alphabet of your DNA.

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I think there may be some way to inhibit DNA though. It may be possible that If you have 2 genes and they are blue and brown eyes for example. You may could block the brown (dominate one), leaving the blue one to rule.

Then there are the people who's hair color or eye color changes upon stress or a traumatic event. This i think is more in line with the hypothesis of Biokinesis. Seratonin release, i think is not really the same category because it is more or less increased production, where changing colors of stuff would be a protein change.

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Originally Posted by sheogorath

I think there may be some way to inhibit DNA though. It may be possible that If you have 2 genes and they are blue and brown eyes for example. You may could block the brown (dominate one), leaving the blue one to rule.

Then there are the people who's hair color or eye color changes upon stress or a traumatic event. This i think is more in line with the hypothesis of Biokinesis. Seratonin release, i think is not really the same category because it is more or less increased production, where changing colors of stuff would be a protein change.

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There are certain genes and proteins that can be blocked, as they are tied to hormones, etc, but the number of such traits is severely limited. Male pattern baldness and gray hair may be two such examples. Certain proteins/hormones/etc in the body block production of hair pigments, etc, but this is an all-or-nothing process.

Also, I don't believe eye pigment is one such trait.

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Originally Posted by Abra

Biofeedback training works by trial-and-error. A success/step toward success in a technique is noticeable immediately, either by readings on a machine, or the person's own observation. For such slow changes as hair and eye color, you have no idea if what you're doing is leading to the desired outcome. It's like trying to open a combination lock with no clues. . . You aren't getting in.

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Right, that's a significant problem I can't see a way of getting around, even
if such a thing were possible. As per the rest of your post I believe we are in
agreement. What is directly controllable benefits function over form, so
in that lies a great advantage, for obvious reasons.

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Originally Posted by Juroara

I'm too lazy to paraphrase the book I read, but Biology of Belief has some answers for you

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A healthy amount of information nonetheless. :chuckle: I do feel that now
would be an appropriate time to read his book. He isn't in any way related to
the Lipton Ice Tea company, is he? That he studies cells and how they
respond to the environment would actually make a lot of sense if he was. In
aaany case, his area of study is of great interest to me.

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Originally Posted by Juroara

Bruce explains how DNA is most flexible in the womb. It is in the womb that evolution really takes place. The fetus receives environmental signals from it's mother. The fetus then grows accordingly to those signals. This is so the child can be better prepared for it's environment than it's own mother who might have been born to a previous out-dated environment

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I understand that there is a certain amount of conditioning that goes
on in the womb, I'm wondering how that effects entire strands of DNA? Does
Mr. Lipton explain that in the book? I've figured that large scale genetic
changes were impossible being that every individual DNA would have to make
the same change at the same time in order for it to take effect. This is
otherwise known as supersplicing. Do you mean that a lot of genetic
mutation occurs in the womb?

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To answer your original question. The answer is NO.

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That appears to be the consensus. At least, on the bright side, the body
remains relatively susceptible to the "power of the mind".

Thank you for raising your points as well, I appreciate that you took the time
to do so and now wish to look further into this by checking out Bruce's book. :)

What I would be interested to see confirmed or debunked is the capacity of some monks to stop bleeding in an open wound. I have reasonable control of circulation and body heat, which I would credit to past meditation practice. Add to that fine muscle control, and I could see the possibility.

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Originally Posted by Taosaur

What I would be interested to see confirmed or debunked is the capacity of some monks to stop bleeding in an open wound. I have reasonable control of circulation and body heat, which I would credit to past meditation practice. Add to that fine muscle control, and I could see the possibility.

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Probably not going to happen.

http://highbloodpressure.about.com/o.../circ_art5.htm

Basically, the circulatory system works by branching into a finer and finer network of blood vessels, before building back up once more and leading right to the heart. So, to divert blood away from a specific area would basically mean stopping the heart altogether. Unlikely to work. Muscles don't control bleeding, either, it should be noted.

But blood flow can be increased in certain parts of the body, no? Blood is also
diverted from the extremities when we experience cold weather, as keeping the
core heated is the priority in those conditions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasoconstriction

It's mostly a chemical/ionic/hormonal thing. It would be very difficult, if not impossible, to direct a fluid stream of hormones or calcium ions to a very specific point on the body without it spreading to all other parts of the body.