All language subtitles for Inner Evolution S1 E1

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>> When I started my research
back in 1967 at the University

of Virginia, I was working with
the early leaders of stem cell

research.

Biologists thought that
genes would turn themselves

on and off.

However, in the stem
cell cultures with

Which I was working, I
noticed that the cells

altered their gene expression
based on their environment.

My colleagues
thought I was nuts.

But in 1991, science finally
realized that my observations

were accurate.

And they coined the new insights
as the science of epigenetics.

I am your host, Bruce Lipton.

And as a pioneer in the research
of stem cells in epigenetics,

I hope to share with you a
scientific approach as to how

spirit exists in every part of
our body, a new awareness that

can create an inner evolution.

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Before we can dive
into this research

and its positive effects
on our human civilization,

we must first address the
current state of global chaos

and how an understanding
of how our bodies work

offers a better life for us as
individuals and a better future

for humanity.

Let's begin with some facts.

Human behavior has precipitated
the planet's sixth mass

extinction event.

And civilization
as we know it is

facing an irreversible collapse
within the coming decades.

Are the global
crises we now face

a portent of the
end of civilization,

or are they a sign for the
beginning of a better one?

Five times in the history of
this planet, life was thriving,

and some natural event caused
from 70% to 95% of all life

to go extinct.

The last time this happened
was 66 million years ago

when the dinosaurs were here.

A comet hit near Mexico,
upended the environment,

and wiped out over
90% of all life,

including all of the dinosaurs.

Well, today,
scientists recognize

we are now facing the
sixth mass extinction

event on this planet.

Unlike the previous
five, which were

due to natural events such
as comets hitting the planet

or tectonic plate movements, the
current sixth mass extinction

is actually due
to human behavior.

For example, in 1970, the
World Wildlife Foundation

did a survey of how many
animals were on this planet.

Recently, they redid the survey.

And guess what they found.

Over 63% of the
animals that were on

this planet have
disappeared since 1970.

We only have one third
of the animals left.

Another study on
insects in Germany

revealed over the last
17 years that there's

been a 75% reduction in insects
in their national parks.

When it comes to the sea,
the same kind of thing

is happening.

And in fact, science
has recognized

that there will be no saltwater
fish left in the ocean by 2048.

And we see all these changes
occurring and, along with it,

climate change.

And people talk
about climate change.

Of course, the weather
is kind of strange.

But we always focus on the fact
that the melting of the ice

caps is going to
cause rising seas,

and it's going to
affect the planet.

But people don't really
recognize there's

something even more profound.

And that is, when
climate change occurs,

we cannot predict agriculture.

We don't know when plants
will grow to their fullest

maturity, when we'll be
able to harvest them,

when it will rain,
when it will be sunny.

And all of a sudden,
climate change

is now threatening the
food supply of this planet.

NASA, few years ago,
had taken a survey

of what was going on in the
planet and came to a conclusion

that industrial
civilization is facing

an irreversible
collapse, that we are now

facing our own extinction.

Interestingly, crises
as we experience

them are precipitating
an evolution.

And this evolution is
changing our civilization.

And if we look over the history
of Western civilization,

we find that there
were civilizations that

were here and have disappeared.

We go back 10,000
years ago, and there

were animists, the native
people of the world,

the Native Americans, the
Indians in South America,

the druids in Europe.

All of these people
lived in a world

of animism, which meant that
spirit and matter were one

and the same, and that
living on this planet you

would honor both the material
realm and the spiritual realm.

However, animism faded away as
polytheism came into presence.

And polytheism, such as
the Greeks, the Romans,

the Egyptians--
what did they do?

They actually took
the spirit out

of the individuals of the
world, as the animists

saw it, and coalesced
these spirits

into gods, multiple gods, a
god of water, a god of crops,

a god of stars, gods for
everything that we saw.

But it took spirituality
out of our everyday world

and put them into
figurehead gods.

Polytheism also faded out
as a new belief, monotheism,

came into being.

Monotheism collected all of
the spirit of this planet,

put it into one
god, and actually

sent that god off the planet.

So we left a time
behind where everything

was spiritual to a current time
where nothing is spiritual,

except god in another place.

And after monotheism, a new and
current civilization arrived,

and that is called
scientific materialism.

And scientific materialism
is today's world

where we start to recognize
there's a material realm

and that we don't even need to
understand a spiritual realm.

We can live here with
just understanding

the physical, material
nature of the planet.

Well, as you can see, we've been
through several civilizations.

And we're actually facing the
end of the current civilization

of scientific materialism.

A civilization has a life cycle,
like anything in the universe.

A star is born,
matures, and dies.

People are born,
mature, and die.

And so does a civilization.

And as a civilization
is created,

the first phase is like that,
where children are experiencing

life, a developmental
phase, a developmental phase

where we try all different
kinds of things, try them out.

However, as we mature,
we begin to have

very rigid beliefs about
how the way civilization

and the universe works.

Now, there's an
unfortunate part of that,

because once we
have a rigid belief,

we're in trouble for
a very simple reason.

Nothing in the universe
stays the same.

Everything is always moving
and transforming itself.

So the reality of a
rigid belief actually

leads to crises, challenges
that we must face.

Not facing those challenges
causes a civilization

to actually go into
decline and collapse.

Well, today's civilization is
surely facing the challenges.

All you have to do is watch the
news on TV, read the newspaper,

go on the internet, or even
just look out your window,

and you can see that chaos
abounds all over the planet.

The significance
about this chaos

is that we are now
recognizing we are not

sustainable in the
way we are living.

It absolutely means we must
change the nature of life

on this planet.

Human behavior is the
source of the problem.

An important point to note
in the face of the sixth mass

extinction is a
very profound fact.

And that is this.

Crisis precipitates evolution.

So as our current civilization
is in a state of failure,

a new civilization
is being seeded.

And interestingly enough,
the viewers of Gaia

are part of this major
new influx of information,

because Gaia viewers are
cultural creatives looking

for a better way to
live on this planet.

So let's understand how we got
into the current civilization

and how we're going
to move into a better

civilization in the future.

Scientific materialism,
the civilization

we're in right now,
was actually founded

in the works of Isaac Newton.

He was studying the
movements of the universe

and looking at the
universe as a machine.

And why that was important
is that Isaac Newton

created what we call classical
physics, or Newtonian physics.

And what's it based on?

Well, Isaac Newton, in
studying the movements

of the planets of
the solar system,

interestingly enough had to
actually create something

before physics.

He created calculus.

No little, small adventure
on the way to understanding

physics, using the calculus
equations what Newton did

was put in the physical
characteristics of the planets,

how big they are, their mass,
how fast they're moving,

and the vectors of their orbits.

And using this data, he
solved the equations,

and he was able to
accurately predict

the movements of the
planets in the solar system.

And you may say, well,
what's the significance?

And the answer to that
is very important.

Because at the time
of Isaac Newton,

we were living in a
civilization called monotheism.

Well, this led to a
belief in materialism.

Isaac Newton, in providing
this new insight,

actually was
considered a heretic

because the church was
running civilization,

and Isaac Newton's data did not
fit the infallible knowledge

offered by the church.

However, to proceed, science
had to make a detente

with the church.

And this is how it worked
out, very simply this.

Science said, we will only study
the material, physical realm

of the universe, leaving
behind all the invisible stuff.

And that they left to
religion, such as spirit.

This was the separation of
physics and metaphysics,

physics saying, we will not
deal with the invisible realm

at all.

We'll understand life just
through the physical realm

and therefore not step on
the feet of the church,

which was actually
running civilization.

Well, through this process of
studying the material realm,

Isaac Newton again
was able to predict

the movement of the planets.

And the significance
of that is prediction

is the hallmark of science.

If you can predict
something, it generally

means that you understand
the mechanism behind it.

So this led Newtonian physics
to a new understanding

of how the universe works.

From that time, assumptions
were made about the universe.

And there are four
assumptions which

I call myth perceptions,
myths that we

accepted as scientific truth.

And then we created a
culture based on these myths.

And the significance is, today,
these four fundamental myths

that shape our world have been
actually found to be incorrect

or outright false.

We've built a civilization
on incorrect information.

Let's just list these
four myth-perceptions.

The first myth-perception
is the fact

that biology is based
on Newtonian physics.

And the significance
of that is that we

believe that our biology
and physical, chemical body

conforms to the
laws of chemistry

and that if we can
understand the chemistry,

we'll understand life.

It leaves out what was called
spirit and invisible moving

forces, because in
the Newtonian physics,

material science said,
ignore those elements,

not necessary to
understanding life.

Well, the problem with that
is, in 1925, a new physics

came into being.

Quantum physics revealed
that the universe is not

a duality of matter and energy,
that the entire universe is

made out of one thing, energy,
and that humans, while we have

the appearance of
being physical,

are actually energy beings
along with all the other energy

in the room.

And the significance of that,
according to quantum physics,

is there is an energy
of who we are, an energy

in the field of humans.

And we've left this
out of the equation

because it was an
invisible realm and not

subject to Newtonian physics.

An important point--

Newtonian physics is
still alive and viable.

Just because quantum
physics came in,

we must recognize that Newtonian
physics is a small subdivision

of quantum physics.

So Isaac Newton's
equations still work,

but they're incomplete.

And we're going to discuss
this in the series,

getting into the nature
of quantum physics

and its influence on
our human biology.

A second myth is that
genes control biology.

Well, this is totally
wrong, as we now know,

because there's a new
science called epigenetics.

So what's the difference?

Well, when we had a belief
that genes controlled our life,

then consider this.

As far as we know, we didn't
pick the genes we came with.

If we don't like the
characteristics we have,

we can't change that genes.

And we're told that genes
turn on and off by themselves.

Well, if you look
at it that way,

then you have to
recognize, then, we

are victims of our heredity.

Oh, there's cancer
running in my family,

and I can get the cancer
gene, or Alzheimer's

running in my family and
I'll get Alzheimer's disease.

And this is the
belief that the genes

are going to convey
what kind of life

we will have on this planet.

Well, this is totally false.

Genes are not capable
of turning on and off,

and we're going to discuss
that in this series.

But what we really should
understand is this,

the new science
called epigenetics.

Well, it sounds like
genetics, epigenetics.

I go, it's a revolution.

It's an evolution.

Epigenetics is a
brand new science.

And the important part
is the prefix "epi."

"Epi" means "above."

Interestingly, skin
is called epidermis.

So "epidermis" means
"above the dermis."

Well, now we're talking
about epigenetics.

Translated, epigenetic
control simply

means control above the genes.

And now we recognize that the
environment and specifically

our perception of
the environment

is what controls our genes.

Since we can control
the environment,

since we can control
our perceptions,

then we're not victims
of our genetics.

We are masters of our genetics.

A third myth about
our civilization

based on the Darwinian theory
of evolution-- as most of us

have learned, in
the Darwinian theory

there's a character
called survival

of the fittest in the
competition for life.

What all this represents
is the belief that animals

reproduce faster than plants.

Over time, there'll be
more and more and more

animals and less
and less plants.

Well, that will mean
there is competition.

Whichever animals get
the food can stay alive,

and whichever animals
don't get the food will

pass by the wayside.

So given a belief that life
is a struggle of competition

to survive on this planet, and
the simple reality is, then,

that makes our planet a war
zone with people competing

against people all of the time.

So is competition the ground
of the world in which we live?

And the answer is
absolutely not.

Science has now
recognized that it

is cooperation that
drives evolution,

the complete opposite.

Rather than fighting
with each other,

our evolution is based on
working together in harmony

and creating a future
as a collective nature

of an entire civilization.

So that's the third myth,
the myth that we're here

to struggle in life.

It's false.

The fourth myth, which is also
related to Darwinian theory,

is based on this
very simple fact.

According to the Darwinian
theory of evolution,

the first step in
evolution is generated

by what is called a random
mutation, an alteration

of the genetics that changes
the character of that individual

and can be propagated
by reproduction.

So basically, it said,
how did we get here?

Well, it was a series
of random accidents

that led to our evolution.

Then why are we here?

The shake of genetic dice.

There was no reason
for us to be here.

And that's where the
crux of the problem

comes from, because we
say, is there a purpose

for human civilization?

Well, according to the
fact that we evolved

through a whole set of random,
accidental mutations, well then

the answer is, not that we know.

There's no purpose at all.

It was all chance.

Well, guess what?

We now know that that
idea of random mutations

as the origin of
evolution is incorrect,

that animals and
organisms on this planet

are well adapted to
every environment.

It's not a
coincidence that there

are no orchids in Antarctica
and there are no polar bears

in South America.

Each of the plants and
animals on this planet

are fitting perfectly into the
environment in which they live.

Is that a coincidence?

No.

It turns out that organisms
adapt their genetics

to conform to the environment.

And all of a sudden, then,
it says, and why are we here?

Because we were adapting
to an environment.

And to do what?

Bring harmony to
that environment.

That's what nature seeks,
balance and harmony.

As one organism
gets out of control,

another organism will come
in and neutralize that.

So as you go up the
evolutionary scale,

every new organism brought
into the environment

had more power than the
lower organism in what?

Creating harmony and
balance in the world.

And if we understand
that, and we go back,

let's say, to the animists,
the Native Americans,

what was their understanding?

That the environment
was a garden.

And what was their job?

They were gardeners
in that environment.

They were there to help and
maintain the environment.

Well, that idea is completely
gone from today's civilization.

Today, we upend the environment
to seek out all the material

wealth that we've
been looking for.

We're destroying the planet
underneath our own feet.

We're not living in
harmony with the planet.

We're actually destroying the
planet and now, as a result,

facing an extinction
that we have created.

So an important
understanding is this.

We have built a culture
on these four beliefs.

And these four beliefs are
now patently incorrect.

So to change our
civilization, we

have to now change our culture
to accommodate the new insights

about why we're here, the nature
of our physical or energetic

universe, the nature of genes.

All of these things are up
for a new reconsideration,

a new look.

And why is this important?

Because how we adapt to these
understandings of nature

is going to allow us to
survive into the future.

As Albert Einstein
said, you can not

solve the problems using
the same thinking that

created the problems.

The four myths we just
described are the problems.

And by following these problems
and making life based on them,

look where we are.

So the understanding is this.

We're going to have to
go back into the world

and understand how we are
involved with the garden

that we inherited.

Because there's still time
for us to change the way

we are living on
this planet, to learn

to live in harmony with nature,
and forestall that sixth mass

extinction.

But we're going to have
to do it relatively soon.

And in this process, one of
the most important things

we're going to learn is this.

There's more to a human than
this physical expression.

There's actually a
spiritual component.

And it's not a new-age idea.

It's actually founded
in the hard science

of quantum physics.

And why we are going
to go into this

is to give you your
power back, because we

have lost our powers.

Now, we didn't lose them
because we don't have power.

We lost our powers because we've
been programmed to be weak.

We bought the
program, and now we

find ourselves to be powerless.

This is the farthest
thing from the truth.

We're extremely
powerful individuals.

In looking at the world today,
we have to recognize something.

It all looks like it's crazy.

Things are going out
of sync everywhere.

We're looking as if we're
going through a random process

of change here.

Things are changing here, and
things are changing there.

But it's not random.

Let me give you an
insight of what we're in.

It's actually called chaos.

And chaos is not random.

I'll give you a very
important example.

Let's say we're in Grand
Central Station in New York

at rush hour, standing
on the balcony,

watching all the people
moving in through the station,

going to their trains.

You see people going
this way and that way

all over the place.

You say, wow, they're random.

I go, no, they're not random.

Every person has a specific
destination, a train

that they're going to find.

It's programmed.

But what is random?

Well, I can tell
you what random is.

During that rush hour, you're
standing on that balcony,

and you start
yelling fire, fire.

And guess what?

Now you'll see
random, because people

will start running all different
directions to try to get out

of the building at one point.

And all of a sudden, you
realize not everybody

knows where they're going.

They're bouncing
all over the place.

That's random, no
destination in sight, OK?

Chaos is actually a matter
of not being random at all.

It's actually controlled.

So the planet is in
a state of chaos.

Yes, look on the news.

Everything is falling
apart here and there.

And you could say,
oh, this is random.

I go, it's not random.

There's a plan underneath
that's determined.

There is a plan that
shows that we are not

living in harmony
with the system

and that we're going to have
to break the old system down

and create a new system.

Well, guess what?

The old system has structure.

The new system has structure.

But what's in the middle
as one is breaking down

and a new one is forming?

Well, it would look like chaos.

It looks like the
cells are randomly

running all over the place
and forming a new organism.

And the fact is this.

They're very specifically
forming a new structure

as the old one is coming down.

To give you the best example
of this, consider this.

A caterpillar, a very
voracious organism,

will eat up all of the leaves on
the plant that it's growing on.

And once it destroys
its own environment,

it goes into what is
called a pupa, a chrysalis.

And in that chrysalis,
it's the beginning

of the formation of a
transformation from caterpillar

to butterfly.

A caterpillar has structure.

A butterfly has structure.

But if you cut open a
pupa, what would you see?

A random mass of cells.

At least, it appears random.

But it is not.

Why?

Some cells are breaking down
from the old caterpillar

structure, and some cells are
building up the new butterfly

structure.

So in the middle, in
that pupa, is chaos.

This is very relevant to today's
world for a simple reason.

Today's civilization is like
the voracious caterpillar.

It's been destroying the
environment in which we live.

And in this process,
we're pushing it

to the edge, which
is causing what?

A time for transformation.

We have to move
from the caterpillar

stage of human civilization
into the lighter

touch of the butterfly
stage of human civilization.

Well, where are we?

We're not in the
butterfly phase yet,

and we're still following the
collapse of the caterpillar

stage.

It is in a state
of chaos, moving

from a non-sustainable
civilization into one

that we can thrive
into the future with.

The important point about
this is, when you look out

the window, and you see
the chaos in the world,

and you read the
news, and you see

things collapsing all over the
place, this is not a bad sign.

This is a very
important positive sign.

Simple reason-- we cannot
sustain ourselves with the old

way of life, that we have to
transform and create a new,

sustainable civilization.

So when you look at the
world and it's chaos,

it's actually a
very positive sign.

Honor it.

Welcome it.

Why?

It is the process
that will allow

us to create that more
sustainable civilization that

will allow us to move into the
future and thrive on a planet

that we can love.

Now that I've given you the
insight on the world situation,

how does this help us move
through today's chaos?

Well, coming episodes will
emphasize a renaissance

in science that reveals a
path toward personal self

empowerment and an opportunity
to create a civilization that

will thrive into the future.

Thank you for joining me.

I'm your host, Bruce Lipton, for
this series on inner evolution

through biological change.

Join me for the next
episode, when we will

discuss the myth of your genes.

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