What do humans and roundworms have in common? The question suggests an impending punch line–except the editors of Science and Nature aren’t known as pranksters. So when these respected publications raised the human-roundworm comparison, we paid attention.

Humans, it turns out, have 30,000 genes. Recently both magazines gave this fact banner attention, noting that the unassuming roundworm can claim to have just one-third fewer genes. (It’s fair to note that a roundworm would probably not make this claim; hence the well-deserved adjective "unassuming.") Seems also fair to say these biological revelations, by themselves, don’t warrant waking the kids for a family pow-wow.

No, it’s the joining of the two facts that has genetics researchers asking intriguing questions. For instance, if all human traits derive from single genes, then how could the astonishing differences between humans and roundworms be explained by so few genes? There’s that.

And while we’re at it: How did we come to believe our very soul is encoded in our DNA?

One answer is that the Human Genome Project has held out the promise of all-encompassing genetic and neuro-anatomical "explanations" for human behaviors: creativity, mental illness, sexual orientation, spirituality, and alcoholism. "The sequencing of the human genome is a thrilling achievement," Nature’s editors recently declared. "It has been likened to landing on the Moon, splitting the atom, and even inventing the wheel."

Yet the daunting complexity of links between genes and behavior has a growing number of researchers doubting such grand manifestos. Especially because some of the most challenging issues seldom get addressed.

"Genes can’t possibly explain all of what makes us what we are," Craig Venter said. Venter is president of Celera Genomics and the scientist who led one of the two teams that analyzed recent mappings of the human genome. Gene Myers, who put together Celera’s genome map, agrees. "What really astounds me is the architecture of life," he said. "The system is extremely complex. It’s like it was designed." He added: "There’s a huge intelligence there. I don’t see that as being unscientific. Others may, but not me."

I join with those who celebrate the initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome–this achievement is truly remarkable. Will the Human Genome Project eventually tell us everything there is to know about ourselves? The key word is everything. Any serious attempt to reduce human nature to nothing but genetics will have to explain how DNA, supposedly lacking sentience, developed the capacity to know, to feel, to experience. How DNA–absent awareness, or intrinsic intent–acquired a marked inclination to reflect on the meaning of this activity. There’s that.

Like Craig Venter, I believe we’ll discover that human nature is not reducible to genetics alone. This may be the same as saying we’re likely to find there’s more to genes than biomatter. There are many important questions to explore, and a crucial role for science. Make that science without blinders. As the research community invests billions of dollars toward mapping the material aspects of reality, we must stay open to alternative scenarios–scenarios that include the possibility that consciousness is causal in ways we have only begun to grasp. As IONS founder Edgar Mitchell put it: "There are no supernatural phenomena. There are only gaps in our understanding of the natural world. We should strive to fill those gaps."

Marilyn Schlitz, Director of Research

Future of the Body: Metanormal Capacities and Bodily Transformation

It is a simple fact that the cultures of the world are many and diverse, yet it is no less true that the oral and written records of many cultures present a picture of important common ground. Men and women from diverse backgrounds and with varied beliefs say they have experienced or demonstrated forms of extraordinary perception, cognition, movement, vitality, and spiritual development. In modern times, those records have been enhanced by scientific studies of exceptional human functioning. What is the evidence that extraordinary attributes are concealed within all of us? Are the boundaries of human nature less fixed than we may usually believe? Are there specific activities and disciplines that ordinary people can do to develop latent powers and potentials?

Michael Murphy has been asking these and similar questions for nearly three decades. The exploratory ground he has tilled with remarkable creativity was celebrated at a recent IONS Invitational Research Symposium entitled "The Future of the Body: Metanormal Capacities and Bodily Transformation."

Drawing on ancient and modern records in medical science, sports, the arts, anthropology, psychical research, comparative religious studies, and other disciplines, Murphy presented a compelling case for the idea that a host of "metanormal" capacities, perceived and developed through balanced practices, could represent a crucial next step in the world’s evolutionary adventure.

Murphy uses the term "metanormal" for behaviors, experiences, and bodily changes that appear to be mediated by nonordinary agencies–call them chi, grace, the Divine, the Tao–that have yet to be accounted for by physics or biology, or any sciences of ordinary human functioning. Examples include mystics whose bodies radiate light, wounds that mysteriously appear and disappear on the bodies of saints, athletes who say they glimpse molecular and cellular structures as they perform amazing feats.

"My research has been guided by the premise that because so many extraordinary powers appear among us without benefit of transformative practice, it’s likely there’s a continuum between ordinary human functioning and various aspects of metanormality," said Murphy.

Journalist Keith Thompson, author of Angels and Aliens, echoed Murphy’s view that extraordinary capacities may be latent within all of us, that the limits of human growth are not fixed, and that there are specific practices we can do to increase the possibility that life-affirming metanormal capacities become part of our everyday lives. A discussion between Murphy and Thompson emphasized the importance of synoptic ("integral") empiricism.

This discussion was followed by two case studies involving specific classes of metanormal human attributes: reports that some individuals thrive for extended periods without eating food of any kind, and Tibetan dying practices involving the Rainbow Body.

Australian author Jasmuheen spoke to the group about her conversion to breatharianism, or "living on light." Jasmuheen recounted her experiences of what she described as "converting my body to light nutrition," a process that has included extensive periods during which she had entirely abstained from eating food. Noting that several research projects have undertaken to study this phenomenon, Jasmuheen commented that abstaining from food is only one component of her own transformative practice. Other elements include daily meditation and prayer, time spent in nature, exercise, and service to others. IONS Research Fellow, Elisabeth Targ, MD and others then discussed possible research directions for the study of breatharianism. "The implications," she noted, "are profound. Not only for understanding the plasticity of the human body, but for a new understanding of the basic assumptions we make about biology. It is an area that deserves open-minded scientific inquiry that may expand our understanding of ourselves and our potentials."

The event also included a presentation by the Venerable Lama Lodu Rinpoche, who provided an overview of the Tibetan Buddhist practice of the Rainbow Body. According to Rinpoche, this involves the belief that certain highly accomplished individuals, upon dying, have "departed" in a mass of "rainbow light." Based on the Tibetan terms lus (that which is left behind, ordinary body) and ‘ja’ (rainbow, rainbow hue), the Rainbow Body or Vajra Rainbow Body (‘JA’ lus rdo rje’i sku) is not so much a "body," more a vortex of energy into which certain adepts can apparently transform themselves while dying.

To use a Tibetan phrase, they "dissolve into space like a rainbow" (nam mkha’ la ‘JA’ yal ba ltar); a process which, curiously enough, is reported sometimes to leave the practitioner’s hair and nails behind.

David Steindl-Rast and Francis Tiso discussed their current field investigations of the Rainbow Body in Tibet and India. They noted that those who undergo the transformation of the rainbow body (‘JA’ lus ‘pho BA chen po) are said to have learned to cease all grasping and to have exhausted all fixations. This inner cleansing of all attachments, so difficult to realize, is at the core of the practice known as Thogal or Tˆgal (Thod-rGal), the "All-Surpassing Realisation" that is part of the Concealed Instructions Series of Dzogchen teachings. Their research has uncovered three biographies of lamas who allegedly manifested the rainbow body, identified several esoteric texts that document the manifestation of the Rainbow Body, and included interviews with witnesses of the death of a high lama who reportedly experienced this exceptional transformation.

Murphy concluded the proceedings by quoting Thomas Browne’s description of the human as "that great and true amphibian whose nature is disposed to live, not only like other creatures in diverse elements, but in divided and distinguished worlds."

"It seems entirely feasible that we can maintain our present human environment or milieu even as we enter metasomatic worlds that subsume them," Murphy noted. Extending Browne’s metaphor, he concluded: "In my continuing research I find myself drawn to the image of humans coming ashore like amphibians into a world beyond our first habitat, transcending many patterns of ordinary human life."