Cairns placed bacteria, possessing a defective gene for the enzyme lactase, in Petri dishes that contained only lactose as a food source. The mutant bacteria were not able to metabolize the substrate. After a short period, the stressed, non-replicating bacteria began to thrive and proliferate. Upon examination, it was found that the bacteria specifically mutated the unresponsive lactase gene and repaired its function. Cairn’s research revealed that, in response to environmental stresses, organism’s can actively induce genetic mutations in selected genes in an effort to survive. These mutations would represent mechanical “adaptations” that are induced by the organism’s response to life experiences.

Though Cairns’ results have been vehemently challenged by traditionalists, a molecular mechanism accounting for his observations was substantiated by Harris, et al., in a paper entitled Recombination in Adaptive Mutation (Science 264:258, 1994). This latter publication revealed that organisms, as primitive as bacteria, contain “genetic engineering genes.” This newly identified class of genes can be actively accessed by the organism to selectively mutate existing genes. Through successful “adaptive” mutations of selected genes, organisms are able to create new proteins, whose altered structures or functions may afford a better opportunity in surviving stressful environments.

Based upon this new perspective, David Thaler published an important revisionist article entitled The Evolution of Genetic Intelligence (Science 264:224, 1994). Thaler’s new perspective recognizes that biological expression is actively defined by the individual’s perception of their life experiences. Thaler emphasizes the significance of perception, not only in its ability to regulate the body’s expression by dynamically switching gene programs, but also in its ability to induce the “rewriting” of existing gene programs in order to better adapt to environmental stresses.

When put into perspective, the newly emerging view of conventional biomedicine reveals a profound change in fundamental beliefs. The Primacy of DNA is giving way to the Primacy of the Environment. Essentially, conventional science has shifted the source of intelligent control from the internalized genes to the externalized environmental “signals.”. These regulatory “environmental” signals appear to be, in part, related to D. D. Palmer’s concept of Universal and Innate Intelligence.

In addition, it has been demonstrated that in response to life experiences, the organism may actively alter “Innate” gene programs as a means of mechanical adaptation to perceived environmental conditions. When perception of the environment is biased by the “educated” brain, then “educated” may bother or worry Innate by selecting inappropriate gene programs and producing dis-ease. Conventional medicine is now recognizing that “educated” may also induce a rewriting (mutation) of Innate programs. Consequently, a perceptual bias by “educated” may lead to genetic dysfunction and cancer.