Most of us grew up believing what scientists believed. We knew that a cells nucleus contained its DNA, that DNA contains genetic material, and that the nucleus of a cell therefore functioned as its brain. We believed that the genetics coded into these cellular brains determined our physical characteristics, our health, and even our personalities.

Former medical school professor and Stanford biology researcher Bruce Lipton used to believe that, too. Then, his study and research showed him that these things just were not true. You can take the nucleus out of a cell, he found, and it will go on functioning for months. So the nucleus cannot be the cells brain.

What is the cells brain, it turns out, is the microscopically thin membrane that surrounds and encloses the cell. And that membrane takes its instructions not from the DNA at the nucleus, but from environmental factors surrounding the cell, including thoughts and perceptions. Our beliefs influence the functioning of our cells, Lipton learned, and actually alter genetic codes. As a result of his research, Lipton has become a student of quantum physics and spirituality. Like other cellular biologists, he has found that quantum physics helps explain the mechanism of communication between mind and body.

In early 20th century America, no one had heard of quantum physics, but a spiritual movement based on the principle that our thoughts create our lives was already being revived from the midst of mainstream Christianity. One of its pioneers was a woman named Myrtle Fillmore, who was exposed to this principle during the final stages of tuberculosis.

When Fillmore heard the teaching that reshaped her understanding of spirituality, she had lived with a diagnosis of tuberculosis and other illnesses for many years. Now, she faced a very poor prognosis. With a husband who was not much healthier than she, and children to provide for, Fillmore was told she had just a number of months to live.

When she heard a lecture by a spiritual teacher, Fillmore had an epiphany. She realized that she was a child of God, and as a child of God, there was no reason to inherit tuberculosis or any other illness, as shed been taught. From that evening on, she began to praise her bodys essential health, wholeness, and power to heal. She spent time every day focusing on the realization that she was a child of health and wholeness, not illness. In other words, she re-trained her cells to be healthy.

It took about two years before Myrtle Fillmore saw the physical evidence of a complete healing in her body, but she did not let that trouble her. After all, shed already outlived her death sentence. She felt that, after so many years of being conditioned for illness, it was natural that the cells of her body took a while to learn what she now taught them. Myrtle Fillmore outlived her prognosis by more than 45 years, and she helped countless others access their own power to heal by teaching their bodies to be healthy. She never heard of quantum physics, but like many in the field of spirituality, she knew how to put it to good use in her life.