You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter

for years. And because the brain acts on the body’s feelings by generating the same thoughts that will produce the same emotions, it becomes clear that redundant thoughts hardwire your brain into axed pattern of neurocircuitry.
But what happens in the body Because feelings are the modus operandi of the body, the emotions you continually feel based on your automatic thinking will condition the body to memorize those emotions that are equal to the unconscious hardwired mind and brain. That means that the conscious mind isn’t really in charge. The body has subconsciously been programmed and conditioned, in a very real way, to become its own mind.
Eventually, when this loop of thinking and feeling and then feeling and thinking has been operating long enough, our bodies memorize the emotions that our brains have signaled our bodies to feel. The cycle becomes so established and ingrained that it creates a familiar state of being—one based on old information that keeps recycling. Those emotions, which are nothing more than the chemical records of past experiences, are driving our thoughts and are being played out over and over again. As long as this continues, we’re living in the past. No wonder it’s so hard for us to change our future!
If the neurons are firing the same way, they’re triggering the release of the same chemical neurotransmitters and neuropeptides in the brain and body, and then these same chemicals begin to train the body to further remember those emotions by altering it physically once again. The cells and tissues receive these very specific chemical signals at specific receptor sites. Receptor sites are akin to docking stations for chemical messengers.
The messengers fit perfectly in place, like a child’s puzzle in which certain shapes, like a circle, a triangle, or a square, fit into specific openings.
Think of those chemical messengers, which are really molecules of emotion, as carrying bar codes that enable the cell receptors to read the messengers electromagnetic energy. When the exact match is made, the receptor site prepares itself. The messenger docks, the cell receives the chemical messages, and then the cell creates or alters a protein. The new protein activates the cell’s DNA within the nucleus. The DNA opens up and unwinds, the gene is read for that corresponding message from outside the cell, and the cell makes anew protein from its DNA (for example, a particular hormone) and releases it into the body.
Now the body is being trained by the mind. If this process continues for years and years because the same signals outside of the cell are coming from the same level of mind in the brain (because the person is thinking,
acting, and feeling the same everyday, then it makes sense that the same
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genes will be activated in the same ways, because the body is receiving the same data from the environment. There are no new thoughts ignited,
no new choices made, no new behaviors demonstrated, no new experiences embraced, and no new feelings created. When the same genes are repeatedly activated by the same information from the brain, then the genes keep getting selected over and over again, and just like gears in a car, they start to wear out. The body makes proteins with weaker structures and lesser functions. We get sick and we age.
In time, one of two scenarios can occur. The intelligence of the cell membrane, which is consistently receiving the same information, can adapt to the body’s needs and demands by modifying its receptor sites so that it can accommodate more of those chemicals. Basically, it creates more docking stations to satisfy the demand—just as supermarkets open up additional checkout lanes when the lines get too long. If business stays good (if those same chemicals keep coming, then you’ll have to hire more employees and keep more lanes open. Now the body is equal to and has become the mind.
In the other scenario, the cell becomes too overwhelmed with the continual bombardment of feelings and emotions on a moment-to- moment basis to allow all the chemical messengers to dock. Because the same chemicals are more or less hanging around outside the cell’s docking-station doors day in and day out, the cell gets used to those chemicals being there. So only when the brain produces a lot more heightened emotions does the cell become willing to open its doors.
Once you increase the intensity of the emotion, the cell is stimulated enough so that the docking-station doors open and the cell turns on.
(You’ll hear more about the importance of emotion later—this is a key part of the placebo equation.)
In the first scenario, when the cell makes new receptor sites, the body will crave those specific chemicals when the brain doesn’t make enough,
and consequently, our feelings will determine our thinking—our bodies will control our minds. That’s what I mean when I say the body memorizes