This book describes how our thoughts and feelings, ideas and beliefs and hopes and dreams alter the condition of our bodies, the circumstances of our lives and even the state of the world.

Every thought counts!

The latest scientific discoveries are revealing that every thought and feeling we ever have is expressed throughout our bodies. For instance, the way we appreciate someone in our life or think about someone whose actions stress us causes changes in our bodies.

Molecules known as neuropeptides link our thoughts and emotions to every part of our bodies. This is why placebos heal people in medical trials. If a person believes they are receiving real medicine, or even if they simply believe in the doctor who administers it, they will usually get better.

Our thoughts and feelings even switch genes on and off. Scientific studies have recently shown that they can cause new areas of growth in our brains, which eventually leads to changes in our bodies. In a very real sense, you are what you think!

The mind-body link even opens up the opportunity for us to heal ourselves of illnesses through the power of our intentions. Stress, for instance, slows down the rate of repair from illness. But if you choose to focus on something that pleases you or think kind thoughts about a person you care about, your body will produce many fewer stress hormones and so the healing process will speed up.

Scientific studies have even indicated that placing your hands upon a person can affect the conditions in their body. Studies on rat pups, for instance, have shown that a mother's touch increases levels of growth hormones and reduces stress hormones.

Even visualizing a person in good health helps. You don't need to be near them for this to work either. Quantum scientists have shown that everything in existence is connected. A thought about anything, wherever it is, changes it in some way.

A thought about a person, then, is registered at some level in their body. Scientists have studied this and found nervous system changes in test subjects as a result of the thoughts that other people are holding about them.

But a thought about anything has the same type of effect, even though we don't always notice it. Researchers have studied this and noticed particularly large effects when many people are focusing on the same thing at the same time. Such group intentions have been shown to reduce crime rates and even instances of terrorism.

Such is our connection to everything that it is impossible for us not to affect the state of the world by what we choose to focus on. An attitude of kindness or forgiveness, for instance, will lead to different conditions - in your body, your life and in the world - than an attitude of selfishness or vengeance. It sounds like common sense - but this book explains how it works and, importantly, what you can do to change things for the better.

Much of the science in this book has already been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, the gold standard in science. I have merely extracted the relevant portions and made a few extrapolations from the conclusions of some of the research, fusing them with my own ideas, which have derived from a broad view of the fields of mind-body science, spirituality and consciousness.

Some of the science presented here has not met with such peer-reviewed approval yet, although this doesn't mean that it is invalid. New ideas and discoveries often take time before they break through into what is regarded as the mainstream. I do believe that many of the studies mentioned in this book point towards a real phenomenon. I believe that we are on the brink of a major breakthrough in our understanding of consciousness and the interplay between mind and matter.

Some of the research I present might sound 'way out there', especially to the average academic scientist. I make no apologies for this. As history has shown us, the path of scientific discovery frequently leads to what at first appears to be ridiculous and it is only later that our understanding of the way things work enables us to embrace the new ideas.

The second half of the book brings spirituality into play. There is less science in this part and more use of intuition as I present a mystical view of the world that is probably beyond scientific proof and can only be grasped by personal experience. But this is still science, only a different kind of science, one that is peculiar to the individual, making everyone a scientist in their own life.

I end the book in the way I like to end all of my talks - helping people to recognize the love, kindness and compassion everywhere around them. When we choose to love, to be kind and to exercise compassion in our personal lives, everything changes. Everything. Go on, try it out! Let us begin our journey of change.

David R. Hamilton, PhD

May 2006

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