I have explained in my previous articles how consciousness acts as the engine of our life. What is the basis of consciousness? Is it the individual's body the brain, the nervous system and its connections? Modern science believes it to be so. Accordingly, structure is the basis of consciousness as well as the feeling associated with a particular state of consciousness.
We have seen how one can modify one's state of consciousness by the method of meditation.
One's life can be positively influenced and the state of health improved. This implies that physical manifestations of disease are also positively modified by sustained maintenance of the state of consciousness at a blissful level. Thus consciousness becomes the basis of structure of the body.
Therefore the assumption that structure is the basis of consciousness is not always true. It can be the other way round. When it is understood that the state of consciousness can lead to changes in structure, it opens a new way of understanding the basis of disease and health.
Presently science is discovering the genetic basis of several disease processes. The gene mutations responsible for specific diseases help in tracing carrier states and in predicting the likelihood of an individual or his/her offspring to develop a particular disease.
Since the structure-consciousness link can work the other way round, one can postulate that changes in consciousness can produce modifications in the gene structure. When a person develops a particular behavior due to social circumstances, with no family history of similar behavior, it is possible that gene modifications take place.
For example the habit of smoking has a genetic basis. However when a person develops the habit of smoking when there is no family history of smoking, it is possible that modifications in gene structure take place. The liking for smoking may then be transmitted to his off-spring genetically.
