Following is something I wrote in meditation when I was working on the second edition of The Highly Sensitive Dog. I was deep in the woods on some research about the genetics of specific behavioral traits in dogs, and I needed some perspective. I needed to “see the forest for the trees,” as it were.

These meditations I write about are conversations I have with that wise, old voice inside me — inside all of us, in fact. They have a simple Question–Answer format, because that's how I scribble them down at the time.

This meditation will be included in volume 2 of The Game. The reason I'm sharing it with you now is because of something I read recently which made it clear that I'm not the only one who is a bit confused about genes and our genetic inheritance, and how it all works.

In brief, someone was expressing concern about how much our DNA (i.e., our individual genome) reveals about us and how it might be used against us by those with technocratic aspirations, who have been vacuuming up as much genomic and other biometric data as they can, on as many people as they can.

The upshot for me is that these aspirations are absurdly misguided and doomed to fail — except for where our thoughts, and particularly our beliefs about ourselves, make us vulnerable to such manipulation and exploitation.

Give it some thought and decide for yourself.

What are genes?

Question: What are genes? What is their purpose? How do they work with respect to behaviour/personality traits?

Answer: Genes are how we write our life. They're the means by which we build, repair, maintain, and regenerate our life.

How do genes work?

Question: OK, so how do the genes related to personality work? How does any gene work?

Answer: It all begins with a thought, an idea, of what we want to create, what experience of life we want in this particular form.

Is personality written into our genetic code?

Question: So, personality is written into our genetic code from the outset?

Answer: YES. It's one of the key ways we ensure that we have the life experience we planned from here. ['Here' being the eternal aspect of ourselves.]

That's how researchers arrived at the conclusion that personality traits such as HSP/HSD are genetically determined. They are. They are chosen in advance.

Now, science will discover that certain ill-defined prenatal conditions contribute to HSP/HSD, suggesting that it crops up in certain individuals unrelated to heredity from time to time.

In other words, it is equal parts genes AND prenatal or early postnatal environment, such as the 47% heritability in the adolescent twin study.

❝ A study of 1,434 teenage twin pairs in the UK found that genetics explained 47% of the variations in Highly Sensitive Child scores among the group — i.e., high sensitivity had a heritability of 0.47. Environmental influences explained the remaining 53%. […]

In other words, high sensory-processing sensitivity has a genetic basis in people, but environmental influences play an equally important role in its expression. ❞

[Source]

However, this is simply humans' attempt to explain everything using purely physical means. Only that which can be measured.

The truth is that it is all us; all our source at play. EVERY individual is having a COMPLETELY UNIQUE EXPERIENCE of life.

To that end, our genes are like keys, or better yet, like words that we use to write our life.

How is gene expression controlled?

Question: So, what are single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)? And how is gene expression (up- or down-regulation) controlled?

Answer: First, SNPs. Each individual is unique and is having a completely unique experience of life. This is The Game.

Of course, there are many playing the same game, like group sports. Each is still having a completely unique experience of that game, but there are some identifiable similarities and commonalities.

And how is gene expression controlled? With the mind; with thought and the feelings that go along with it. And the molecules of emotion that mediate the effects of thought.

['Molecules of emotion' is the brilliant term coined by Candace Pert, PhD to explain the biochemistry of the mind-body connection.]

Putting it all together

Question: OK, so would you please put it all together for me? Personality, genes, SNPs, the thought environment?

Answer: Sure. Your genes are a condensation of the idea that is you. Of the plans you have for your life at the start, and the means of enacting your original plans and all subsequent plans you make and ideas you have about your life-in-progress.

So, for highly sensitive dogs, for example, their genes (including individual SNPs) are the starting point, the jumping-off point, the original blueprint or factory-installed software.

The expression of those genes is all about what that individual does with those genes. How that individual responds to life, to all around them.

Here, the game gets unimaginably complex (at least, to the human mind) because the number of individual events and other factors, and the infinite number of combinations they may form at play, means that no two HSDs (or HSPs) have the same experience of life.

So, don't get caught up in which genes/SNPs on which chromosomes are provably or possibly or probably involved. It's enough to know that there are genetic components (measured by heritability) and there are environmental components. And the interplay is unique to each dog and each person.

That concludes this particular meditation. I'll post more snippets from volume 2 of The Game as I'm inspired.

In the meantime, pay a little attention to your habitual thoughts and the effect they have on your biochemistry, physiology, and thus on your life.

Notice your thoughts and their effects on your well-being.

Just do that for awhile and watch your life change.

The Game: hide, seek, find, laugh