Thinking Our Way to a Brighter Future

We are stewards at future’s gate, actively participating in an evolutionary orchestra, the cadence of which life collectively dictates. Via our minds, the future is ours to create…

(Epi)Genetic basis:

Consider your genome: strung together across 23 chromosomes are the genetic ideas that determine your physical self. Nothing exactly like you exists in the entirety of the physical Universe. You are a novel ‘genetic idea’!

Perhaps you may have an identical twin. However, in this instance, it is highly unlikely that you and you geminal counterpart are exactly alike upon birth. The reason: epigenetics.

Epigenetics dictates that experience and environment actively annotate our DNA. Imagine your DNA, in the moments just following fertilization, as an unmarked genetic score. All of the notes needed to play the suite are present, but subtleties as to how the piece should ‘feel’ are notably absent.

An orchestrated development period subsequently ensues. The single diploid cell from which we all began exponentially divides, and differentiates, into a multitude of specialized cell types. Presiding over this cellular differentiation process is a cascade of epigenetic changes. Your DNA ceases to be an unmarked score, and becomes annotated, such that gene expression within each cell type is tailored according to its intended physiological role; different cells need distinct arrays of proteins. This differentiation process can therefore be viewed as your genetic score being ‘arranged’ in various ways; some ‘cells’ contain only string instruments, others brass, and yet others require an entire symphonic ensemble, complete with woodwinds and percussion.

Eventually, this differentiation process tapers off, and your body contains all the cell types needed to exist as a human being on Planet Earth. At this point, each cell type can be imagined as performing a unique arrangement of the genetic score, each in mellifluous harmony with its trillions of companion cells.

Epigenetic changes, however, continue long after this development-driven differentiation processes concludes. Cell-by-cell, your genetic score is continually marked up, highlighted etc. Until our death, the world around (and within) us is iteratively imprinted upon our DNA.

Epigenetic (R)Evolution:

Cells are responsive entities, and epigenetic modifications represent a primary conduit via which organisms adapt to their surrounds at the molecular level. Circling back to our orchestral analogy, cells assume the role of performers. Environment can therefore be depicted as an amalgamation of audience and performance space. To optimize their performance, musicians must actively attend to their surrounds, remaining conscious of their audience and the venue in which they are preforming. Similarly, as dictated by the dynamic interplay that is existence, our cells must continually respond to the tenor of their environment. These cellular responses often take the form of epigenetic alterations, which annotate the genetic script, such that every iteration may be more harmonious and refined than the last.

Evolution may be summarized as such. However, we must not view evolution as a passive process. Evolution is an active undertaking, and we have been cast into the role of participants. Through our actions propagate ripples in an existential fabric, and it is via these waves that evolutionary change becomes manifest.

As evolutionary participants, we, as conscious, sentient beings, serve as the leader, the conductor, the maestro, to our cells, which together, constitute trillions of interconnected ensembles. As conductors, we possess a gestalt that lies beyond description, and consequently, are endowed a degree of agency over the unceasing epigenetic processes occurring within us all.

The Power of Thought:

No bodily tissue is as malleable, nimble, and dynamic as the brain. Our brains vibrate in thought, spreading reverberations to all corners of our bodies. These thoughts, initially conceived out of some conscious void, are, in many of us, instantaneously translated into a socially-constructed language, thus giving our thoughts mental form. However, upon transmission to remote cells, these thoughts become ill-defined notions. Our thoughts, nonetheless, manage to strike a chord with our genetic script, which facilitates the transduction of amorphous thought into a precise molecular language. This molecular lingo is the tongue of epigenetics, a structured ‘markup language’ which annotates our DNA.

Pursuantly, neuroscience research has remarkably shown that certain thought-exercises, such as meditation, can exert a host of beneficial effects within the brain (review article linked here), including increased functional and anatomical connectivity.¹ This powerful notion, that our thoughts can produce pronounced effects within the brain, begs the question: What, if any, systemic effects can our thoughts promote at the cellular and/or molecular level?

In recent years, this question has begun to be scientifically investigated in the context of meditation and other mindfulness-pursuits (e.g. yoga). To this end, initial results seem to reinforce the notion that certain modes of thought can propagate down to the cellular and molecular realms, thus driving epigenetic processes.

One such study, Kalliman et al., probed the ability of ‘expert meditators’ to induce epigenetic changes via meditation.² Kalliman and colleagues found that, in comparison to non-meditators, ‘expert meditators’ appear able to leverage meditation to rapidly induce epigenetic alterations. Specifically, in meditators they observed reduced expression of pro-inflammatory genes (e.g. RIPK2 and COX2) following meditation.

Bearing in mind that we are all not ‘expert meditators’, another study, Carlson et al., looked specifically at the effects of mindfulness-based intervention among breast cancer survivors.³ Carlson et al. observed trends suggesting that in the wake of cancer, mindfulness-based intervention can benefically maintain telomere length.

Telomeres are essentially chromosomal caps, which due to aging and other stressors, become shortened over the course of one’s lifetime. Associating telomeres with the notion of epigenetics, it has been demonstrated that telomere length is regulated via epigenetic modifications.⁴ Furthermore, loss-of-function of proteins that police epigenetic mechanisms (e.g. histone methyltransferases) has been shown to correlate with reductions in telomere length.⁵

While telomere attrition is unavoidable, excessive reduction in telomere length can have detrimental impacts upon one’s health. In the context of Carlson et al., reduced telomere length places individuals at an increased cancer risk. Thus, if cancer survivors can actively combat telomere attrition via mindfulness-based interventions, the odds of cancer recurrence may be reduced. (A rationalization that seemingly makes sense if, perhaps, certain cancers are manifestations of epigenetics gone awry.)

These are but a few examples of the profound effects that thought-exercises can have upon one’s physical being, and how our thoughts can propagate down to the molecular level of our DNA to evoke epigenetic change. Pursuantly, might we all be a mere thought away from becoming better, more epigenetically evolved human beings?

Multigenerational Implications:

We are thus at an evolutionary tipping point. The notion that we can harness our thoughts to precipitate epigenetic change brings to bear widespread implications. Noteworthy findings suggest that epigenetic modifications are inheritable by offspring.⁶ Pursuantly, our thoughts, no matter how grand or petty, have the potential to resonate in the genes of generations to come.

Therefore, humanity’s future, and the future of Planet Earth, is a future that our minds will actively create. As conductors to trillions of microscopic ensembles, we can annotate our genetic score to become increasingly euphonious participants in the orchestra of life. Resultant reverberations will undoubtably spread to those around us, who will subconsciously start grooving the beat. Our collective resonance will consequently summate to catalyze an unprecedented evolutionary acceleration, the likes of which have never occurred on our planet.

We must leverage this awesomely powerful notion to sculpt a brighter future, one positive thought at a time!

Citations (links to publications are accessible in text):

[1]. Tang, Y. Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 213.

[2]. Kaliman, P., Álvarez-López, M. J., Cosín-Tomás, M., Rosenkranz, M. A., Lutz, A., & Davidson, R. J. (2014). Rapid changes in histone deacetylases and inflammatory gene expression in expert meditators. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 40, 96–107.

[3]. Carlson, L. E., Beattie, T. L., Giese‐Davis, J., Faris, P., Tamagawa, R., Fick, L. J., … & Speca, M. (2015). Mindfulness‐based cancer recovery and supportive‐expressive therapy maintain telomere length relative to controls in distressed breast cancer survivors. Cancer, 121(3), 476–484.

[4]. Blasco, M. A. (2007). The epigenetic regulation of mammalian telomeres. Nature Reviews Genetics, 8(4), 299.

[5]. García-Cao, M., O’Sullivan, R., Peters, A. H., Jenuwein, T., & Blasco, M. A. (2004). Epigenetic regulation of telomere length in mammalian cells by the Suv39h1 and Suv39h2 histone methyltransferases. Nature genetics, 36(1), 94.

[6]. Richards, E. J. (2006). Inherited epigenetic variation — revisiting soft inheritance. Nature Reviews Genetics, 7(5), 395.