{"id":2643,"date":"2014-06-29T08:55:41","date_gmt":"2014-06-29T12:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?p=2643"},"modified":"2016-10-19T09:14:06","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T13:14:06","slug":"using-the-onoff-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html","title":{"rendered":"Using the on\/off switch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists don\u2019t fully understand the operations of genes. They have however discovered that RNA molecules can turn on\/off in response to environmental factors such as stress or nutrition. RNA molecules are like switches and play a critical role in how and to what extent genes are used in the body.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe one day, the ability to turn off what\u2019s dubbed the \u201cselfish gene\u201d will be practiced. I say \u201cpracticed,\u201d because there is nothing definite about a physical action. If a switch can be turned off, it can be turned on again. A thief can be put in jail, and they can get out and steal again. Until the penchant to steal is gone, physical manipulations are only attempts to solve a problem temporarily.<\/p>\n<p>Most of us won&#8217;t deny that the selfish gene can lead to stress or over eating. It\u2019s definitely a problem-maker. However, over the ages, people have turned off the selfish gene solely by means of a mental practice.<\/p>\n<p>The underlying factor of \u201cmind\u201d can\u2019t be underestimated or neglected as a crucial element in<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/01\/getting-in-touch-with-gods-truth.html\"> any practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, the human mind comes up against its own limitations and can be lost or wasted.<\/p>\n<p>This is where the divine Mind comes in. We can practice internalizing or adopting the divine Mind by getting to know it better than we get to know switching genes.<\/p>\n<p>Getting to know divine Mind requires looking away from our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/06\/arguing-on-the-side-of-the-divine.html\">mortal self.<\/a> We must even look away from our expectations. We can\u2019t get to know someone else by first expecting them to do something for us.<\/p>\n<p>Releasing our human expectations, we can then find divine Mind which in turn can guide our human minds and bodies. Here is a definition of Mind from <em>21<sup>st<\/sup> Century Science and Health, <\/em><strong>\u201cMind<\/strong>. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God; not that which is <em>in<\/em> man and woman, but the divine Principle of whom God\u2019s child is the full and perfect expression; Deity, which outlines but is not outlined.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists don\u2019t fully understand the operations of genes. They have however discovered that RNA molecules can turn on\/off in response to environmental factors such as stress or nutrition. RNA molecules are like switches and play a critical role in how and to what extent genes are used in the body. Maybe one day, the ability&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1407,1406,1408,1405],"class_list":["post-2643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-science","tag-digital-biology","tag-digital-genetics","tag-dna","tag-genetics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Using the on\/off switch - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using the on\/off switch - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scientists don\u2019t fully understand the operations of genes. They have however discovered that RNA molecules can turn on\/off in response to environmental factors such as stress or nutrition. RNA molecules are like switches and play a critical role in how and to what extent genes are used in the body. Maybe one day, the ability&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-29T12:55:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-19T13:14:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Using the on\/off switch - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Using the on\/off switch - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"Scientists don\u2019t fully understand the operations of genes. They have however discovered that RNA molecules can turn on\/off in response to environmental factors such as stress or nutrition. RNA molecules are like switches and play a critical role in how and to what extent genes are used in the body. Maybe one day, the ability&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Spirituality","article_published_time":"2014-06-29T12:55:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-10-19T13:14:06+00:00","author":"Cheryl Petersen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cherylpetersen","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html","name":"Using the on\/off switch - Everyday Spirituality","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-29T12:55:41+00:00","dateModified":"2016-10-19T13:14:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#\/schema\/person\/5f61c15bc03b38172723cefb1475d1bb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/06\/using-the-onoff-switch.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Using the on\/off switch"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/","name":"Everyday Spirituality","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Cheryl Petersen","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#\/schema\/person\/5f61c15bc03b38172723cefb1475d1bb","name":"Cheryl Petersen","description":"Cheryl Petersen engages and advances divine Science, interpreting harmony to the universe. Cheryl's book is, \"21st Century Science and Health.\"","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.HealingScienceToday.com","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/healingsciencetoday\/","https:\/\/x.com\/cherylpetersen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/author\/cherylpetersen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2643"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3628,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643\/revisions\/3628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}