What is ‘Psychophysics’ and Why is it Vital to our Health?
Posted: May 1, 2021
By: Phoenix Giardino
According to the authors of the textbook MATLAB for Neuroscientists (Second Edition): An Introduction to Scientific Computing in MATLAB, psychophysics is the branch of psychology that studies the relationships between physical experience and mental concepts. As strange as it may seem to us now, it appears before the 1850s, no one had connected the dots between the five human senses--touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste--and the brain’s ability to process the information the body received. In fact, at that time in history, it was a known “fact” the mind (commonly called the ‘soul’ back then) was housed inside the body, but that mind and body were nothing more than roommates. They shared a space, but they didn’t interact with and had no interest in one another. Even more interestingly, Gustav Theodor Fechner, a trained German physician who never practiced medicine a day in his life, fathered this science--which his colleagues openly mocked. 1
Nearly blinded the 1840s by his experiments to study the temporary impressions on his own retinas after staring directly into the sun for long periods of time, Fechner became severely depressed and isolated himself in a dark room for almost ten years. When he finally chose to return to normal life, he was stunned to discover how extremely bright his environment appeared—despite the fact he was almost completely blind. Spiritually moved by this ongoing experience, he became entirely convinced not only did souls exist, but even non-living materials had them.
(image courtesy of pexel.com)
From the observation of what some now refer to as ‘auras’, he developed his “identity theory” in which he believed whole-heartedly the body and soul—which we now call the mind--were not two different things, but one and the same. His logic was simple enough: if he could prove the soul (mind) and body worked together in a “clear and functional relationship”, then it would verify the soul and body were not two separate elements but one and the same. Despite being laughed at by his peers, in 1860, Fechner published his findings on the subject in his Foundations of Psychophysics. His report presented clear evidence in numerous psychological and physical relationships, including the direct connection between the mind’s ability to gauge how heavy an object is simply by the way it looks. 2
The importance of psychophysics in ALL our lives lies in the discovery that our environment controls our biology; our genetics don’t control our lives. Allow me to rephrase this statement. It’s not the genetic information we inherited from our parents that determines our health and well-being, but how we live that determines how healthy we are. Holy #$@%!, Batman!
According to leading cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton, our very cells are designed to work in perfect unison with not only with the electromagnetic energy surrounding us every moment of every day, but with our very thoughts and emotions.3 If we create an unhealthy space to work, to reside, to play, think, and feel—both outside and inside our organic structure—our very bodies become mirrors of our experiences. If our external and internal environments are toxic, so are we.
Here’s the skinny: based on Dr. Lipton’s decades of research, he confidently explains the very cells that make up our body are living, programmable computer chips.4 Just as Integral Membrane Proteins (IMPs) allow nutrients to pass through the membrane itself, these receptors also permit electromagnetic information—including thoughts and emotions--from the environment to enter the cell. “When these receptor proteins bind with an environmental signal, the resulting alteration in the protein’s electrical charges cause the [protein’s] backbone to change shape and the protein adopts an ‘active’ conformation…Cells possess a uniquely ‘tuned’ receptor protein for every environmental signal that needs to be read,” Lipton states. “These receptors act as the ‘keyboard’ of our Central Processing Unit (CPU), i.e. the effector proteins of our cells, which “convert the incoming data into the binary code language of the behavioral language of biology used by the cell’s Operating System (OS).”5
So, if you remember nothing else about psychophysics and cellular biology, remember this: GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT.
Next UP:
1. Wallisch, Pascal; Lusignan, Michael; Benayoun, Marc; Baker, Tanya; Dickey, Adam; and Hatsopoulos, Nicholas G. MATLAB for Neuroscientists (Second Edition): An Introduction to Scientific Computing in MATLAB. Academic Press. 2014. Quoted in Elsevier, Psychophysics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/psychophysics. Retrieved: April 7, 2021.
2. Wallisch, Pascal; Lusignan, Michael; Benayoun, Marc; Baker, Tanya; Dickey, Adam; and Hatsopoulos, Nicholas G. MATLAB for Neuroscientists (Second Edition): An Introduction to Scientific Computing in MATLAB. Academic Press. 2014. Quoted in Elsevier, Psychophysics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/psychophysics. Retrieved: April 7, 2021.
3. Lipton, Bruce, H. The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles. Hay House, Inc. Carlsbad, CA. 2015.
4. Lipton, Bruce, H. The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles. Hay House, Inc. Carlsbad, CA. 2015. Pages 73-74.
5. Lipton, Bruce, H. The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter, and Miracles. Hay House, Inc. Carlsbad, CA. 2015. Pages 73-74.