The Avatar-Gene ExperimentBY GARRET YOUNT

The misconception that mind-body medicine is fundamentally less efficacious and powerful than current Western medical interventions such as pharmaceutical drugs remains the prevalent paradigm, but new studies continue to challenge that. One area showing particular promise for breaking through this conditioned mind-set is research that reveals the ways in which mental processes can influence the activity of genes in the cells of our body. This area of research is referred to as epigenetics in recent books by cell biologist Bruce Lipton (Biology of Belief and, more recently, Conscious Evolution) and psychologists Dawson Church (The Genie in your Genes: Epigenetic Medicine and the New Biology of Intention) and Ernie Rossi (The Psychobiology of Gene Expression). These authors describe how the regulation of gene expression (genes being turned up and down or on and off) is an ongoing, dynamic process, occurring in every tissue of the body as part of cellular signal transduction pathways that link short-term stimuli to long-term physiological effects. In other words, the regulation of gene expression is the mechanism by which our bodies change in response to what we experience; signals such as fear, for example, that originate either from our external or internal environment, are translated by our cells into functional changes in the way our cells and organs operate.

Since such effects influence health and disease, gene expression analysis is becoming an important complement to analyses of DNA sequence variations (e.g., mutations) in health research. In fact, disparate results found between analyses of gene expression and of DNA sequence variations highlight the fact that gene expression is often more relevant because it represents the direct and immediate impact of environmental factors, which can be physical as well as emotional and mental. Epigenetics research challenges the conventional dogma about genes and suggests that purely mental processes, such as belief, can influence our health at the most fundamental level.

The Negative Impacts of StressPsychosocial stress can cause molecular signals to be released into the bloodstream by the brain and other nervous system tissues. These signals affect the expression of genes in blood cells and other cells throughout the body via transmitters, receptors, and neuropeptides that can negatively alter the responsivity of neuroendocrine, immune, and other systems in a long-lasting fashion. Some of the first compelling evidence in this regard was found in studies examining acute stress responses. Researchers at New York University Medical Center measured the expression levels of a stress-related gene in blood cells collected from patients before and after an invasive medical procedure. The group found elevated expression levels for the c-fos gene, which encodes an important regulator of many other genes including genes involved in the stress response (Platt, He, 1995).

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The Avatar-Gene Experiment 1

Research Roundup 3

Worldview Transformation 5

Circle Member Profile 6

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Book Reviews 8

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Another study collected blood samples from graduate students before and after the oral defense of their doctoral thesis and found changes in gene expression leading to increased expression of several stress hormones and their receptors (Morita, Saito, 2005).

The Positive Impacts of Reducing StressLowered stress levels can also infl uence the expression of our genes. Dusek and colleagues collected blood samples from healthy individuals who had completed eight weeks of training in meditation, qigong, and other practices that elicit “the relaxation response” (Wallace et al., 1971) and found that the expression levels of more than a thousand genes were regulated as a consequence of undergoing this training (Dusek, Otu, 2008). Another study suggests that expressing positive emotions in the form of laughter involves changes in gene expression. Kazuo Murakami’s group in Japan found changes in expression levels for twenty-three genes after subjects listened to a comic story compared to when they sat through a serious lecture (Hayashi et al., 2006).

Such studies are provocative but do not defi nitively rule out contributions from physical activity. For example, the impacts on gene expression found in the relaxation study may have been contributed to by changes in the behavior of the subjects over the eight-week training period, such as exercise or diet. Likewise, the regulation of gene expression observed in the laughter study may have been caused by the intense, rhythmic contractions of the abdominal muscles associated with laughter. In making a case that our mind can have an effect on gene expression, we need better experimental conditions to rule out physical contributors and effectively isolate mental processes only. The Avatar-Gene Experiment is designed as a model of how such a study would be done.

Testing the HypothesisReminiscent of James Cameron’s movie Avatar, neuroscientists have shown that a person’s body awareness can be transferred into a mannequin by manipulation of the visual perspective and synchronous touches applied to the body and the mannequin (Petkova & Ehrsson, 2008). After this illusion of “body swapping” has taken place, subjects who witness something happening to the mannequin will perceive it as if it were happening to their own body. For example, seeing a kitchen knife slashed across the mannequin’s belly elicits a genuine fear response that can be measured at the physiological level. Since the subject’s body remained untouched, this Avatar methodology provides a clean model for studying physiological responses triggered by purely mental processes.

The Avatar-Gene Experiment will measure expression levels for stress-related genes in blood samples from subjects who do or do not experience the body swapping and then witness a threat to a mannequin. The hypothesis is that gene expression changes will be measurable in samples from those subjects believing that the mannequin’s body is their own. Positive results would provide strong direct evidence for the ability of a belief—in this case a false belief—to infl uence the regulation of gene expression in our bodies.

The implications of such fi ndings include bringing an entirely new evidenced-based perspective to the value of self-awareness as it relates to personal health and healing. Also, in the same way that psychologist Daryl Bem’s recent study of presentiment was accepted into a mainstream psychology journal (see Research Roundup), the Avatar-Gene Experiment could fi nd its way into a mainstream biomedical journal, greatly expanding the scope of scientifi c inquiry into the mind-body connection.

S TA F F

EDITORMatthew Gilbert

GRAPHIC DESIGNERTom Joyce

PRODUCTION COORDINATORTiffany Mitchell

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Reminiscent of James Cameron’s movie Avatar,

neuroscientists have shown that a person’s

body awareness can be transferred

into a mannequin by manipulation of the

visual perspective and synchronous touches

applied to the body and the mannequin.

ART CREDITS

COVER: Photomontage by Tom JoyceAvatar Stretch © iStockphoto.com /alwyncooper

PAGE 3: Mannequin, © Olga Biletska / Dreamstime.com

PAGE 4: Big Star II by Drew Galloway

PAGE 8: Magic Book…, ©Shutterstock.com / Sergej Khakimullin

©2010 Institute of Noetic Sciences

The Institute of Noetic Sciences saved the following resources by using Primavera Silk(FSC), made with 80% recycled fiber and 60% post-consumer waste, elemental chlorinefree and manufactured with electricity that is offset with Green-e® certified renewableenergy certificates.

trees water energy solid wastegreenhouse

gases

16fully grown

7404gallons

5Million BTUs

450pounds

1537pounds

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Endnotes1. Platt, J. E., He, X., Tank, D., Slater, J., and Goldstein, M., “C-fos Expression In Vivo

in Human Lymphocytes in Response to Stress,” Progress in Neuropsychopharmocology & Biological Psychiatry 19 (1995): 65–74.

2. Morita, K., Saito, T., Ohta, M., Ohmori, T., Kawai, K., Teshima-Kondo, S., and Rokutan, K., “Expression Analysis of Psychological Stress-Associated Genes in Peripheral Blood Leukocytes,” Neuroscience Letters 381 (2005): 57–62.

3. Cole, S. W., Hawkley, L. C., Arevalo, J. M., Sung, C. Y., Rose, R. M., and Cacioppo, J. T. “Social Regulation of Gene Expression in Human Leukocytes,” Genome Biology 8 (2007).

4. Dusek, J. A., Otu, H. H., Wohlhueter, A. L., Bhasin, M., Zerbini, L. F., Joseph, M. G., Benson, H., and Libermann, T. A., “Genomic Counter-Stress Changes Induced by the Relaxation Response,” PLoS ONE 3 (2008): e2576.

5. Wallace, R. K., Benson, H., and Wilson, A. F. “A Wakeful Hypometabolic Physiologic State,” American Journal of Physiology 221 (1971): 795–799.

6. Hayashi, T., Urayama, O., Kawai, K., Hayashi, K., Iwanaga, S., Ohta, M., Saito, T., and Murakami, K., “Laughter Regulates Gene Expression in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes,” Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 75, no. 1 (2006): 62–65.

7. Petkova, V. I. and Ehrsson, H. H., “If I Were You: Perceptual Illusion of Body Swapping,” PLoS ONE 3, no. 12 (1971). !

GARRET YOUNT, PhD, is a molecular biologist at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco. He is working with IONS researchers and psychologist Dawson Church (the Soul Medicine Institute, www.soulmedicineinstitute.org) to assemble a team and resources for conducting the Avatar-Gene Experiment and other research into healing that results from changes in consciousness.

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Presentiment Goes MainstreamA soon-to-be-published study, “Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect” by Daryl J. Bem of Cornell University (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2010), is positioned to have an impact in the mainstream scientific community.

One of the exceptional human cap-acities we are interested in at IONS is how awareness extends through time. This capacity is sometimes referred to as precognition if the future is perceived consciously or presentiment if it is per-ceived unconsciously. In both cases,

these capacities imply the existence of retrocausation—when the future influences the present.

Bem, a prominent psychologist, has developed new methods of testing for presentiment effects in how people make decisions and how they access their memories. In his article, which has been accepted by one of the most highly regarded academic psychology journals in the field, Bem reports on nine experiments involving more than 1000 participants (primarily college students).

These experiments investigated retro-active influences by time-reversing well-known psychological experiments, so that the individual’s responses

RESEARCH ROUNDUP

If presentiment does not exist, then these experiments should have resulted in null results; however, all but one of the nine experiments yielded statistically significant results in the direction that was predicted.

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