{{Short description|American writer and lecturer}} {{pp-protected|small=yes}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox person | name = Bruce Lipton | image = Bruce Lipton.jpg | caption = Lipton during an interview in Prague, Czech Republic, December 2022 | birth_place = Mount Kisco, New York, U.S. | alma_mater = C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, University of Virginia }}
'''Bruce Harold Lipton''' is an American writer and lecturer whose work has been dismissed by some peers as pseudoscience.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/life/gene-genie-the-struggle-of-cell-biologist-bruce-lipton/30293721.html|title=Gene Genie: The struggle of cell biologist Bruce Lipton|date=May 25, 2014|website=Irish Independent}}</ref> By his own admission, his ideas have not received attention from mainstream science.<ref name="Ellison2010">{{cite journal |last=Ellison |first=Katherine |author-link=Katherine Ellison |year=2010 |title=New Age or "New Biology"? |journal=Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment |volume=8 |issue=2 |page=112 |doi=10.1890/1540-9295-8.2.112 |bibcode=2010FrEE....8..112E |quote=Lipton remains on the sidelines of conventional discussions of epigenetics. Mainstream science has basically ignored him, he says—something he may in fact have encouraged, with his extraordinarily unrestrained enthusiasm. |doi-access=free}}</ref> He has not published original scientific research in a peer-reviewed medical journal in 30 years.
== Beliefs and advocacy == Lipton received a B.A. in biology from C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in 1966 and a PhD in developmental biology from the University of Virginia in 1971.<ref name="lipton">{{cite web |url=http://www.brucelipton.com/curriculum-vitae/ |title=Curriculum Vitae |first=Bruce |last=Lipton |website=brucelipton.com|date=December 13, 2013 }}{{self published inline|certain=yes|date=January 2020}}</ref> From 1973 to 1982, he taught anatomy at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, before joining St. George's University School of Medicine as a professor of anatomy for three years.<ref name="lipton" /> He said that sometime in the 1980s, he rejected atheism and came to believe that the way cells function demonstrates the existence of God.<ref name=SFGate>{{cite news|last=Miller|first=David Ian |title=Finding My Religion: Bruce Lipton, cell biologist and author of "The Biology of Belief," says it's our beliefs, not our DNA, that control our biology |url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/FINDING-MY-RELIGION-Bruce-Lipton-cell-3302382.php|access-date=April 15, 2014 |newspaper=SF Gate |date=November 14, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Kohn |first1=Rachael |title=Spiritual Scientists: the researchers finding God in a petri dish |url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/spiritofthings/4788596 |access-date=April 11, 2020 |work=ABC Online |date=July 5, 2013}}</ref> Since 1993, he has taught primarily at alternative and chiropractic colleges and schools.<ref name="lipton" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=February 27, 2020 |title=Eat, pray, lie: Holistic wellness scams in the age of social media |url=https://kinesismagazine.com/2020/02/27/eat-pray-lie-holistic-wellness-scams-in-the-age-of-social-media/ |access-date=August 14, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> Lipton has lectured at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic in Auckland.<ref>[https://chiropractic.ac.nz/event/bruce-lipton-community-lecture-the-new-biology/ "Bruce Lipton Community Lecture – The New Biology"]. chiropractic.ac.nz. Retrieved August 13, 2023.</ref>
In 2010, Katherine Ellison wrote in her opinion column in the journal ''Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment'' that Lipton "remains on the sidelines of conventional discussions of epigenetics". She quoted him as saying that mainstream science basically ignored him.<ref name="Ellison2010" /> In ''Science-Based Medicine'', David Gorski called Lipton a "well-known crank" and likened his idea to the law of attraction, also known as "''The Secret''": "wanting something badly enough makes it so".<ref>{{cite web |last=Gorski |first=David |author-link=David Gorski |date=February 4, 2013 |title=Epigenetics: It doesn't mean what quacks think it means |url=https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/epigenetics-it-doesnt-mean-what-quacks-think-it-means/ |website=Science-Based Medicine}}</ref> Gorski criticized the support Lipton's ideas received from Deepak Chopra, calling both of them "quackery supporters".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Choprawoo returns, this time with help from Bruce Lipton |url=https://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/06/14/choprawoo-returns-this-time-with-help-fr |access-date=August 14, 2023 |website=ScienceBlogs|first=David|last=Gorski|date=June 13, 2011 |language=en}}</ref>
Lipton has been known to express opposition to vaccinations, specifically with regard to a supposed association between vaccines and autism that has been firmly discredited:<ref>Taylor, Luke E.; Swerdfeger, Amy L.; Eslick, Guy D. (June 17, 2014). "Vaccines are not associated with autism: an evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies". Vaccine. 32 (29): 3623–3629. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.04.085. ISSN 1873-2518. PMID 24814559.</ref><ref>Zerbo, Ousseny; Qian, Yinge; Yoshida, Cathleen; Fireman, Bruce H.; Klein, Nicola P.; Croen, Lisa A. (January 2, 2017). "Association Between Influenza Infection and Vaccination During Pregnancy and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder". JAMA pediatrics. 171 (1): e163609. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.3609. ISSN 2168-6211. PMID 27893896.</ref> "The most important issue we have to face is this very serious issues about vaccines... The question of whether [a vaccine] is beneficial or not is now coming to the front because we are finding a very very epidemic increase in regard to allergic reactions or hypersensitivity. We're also finding that people are bringing in the concept that autism seems to associated with the widespread use of vaccines".<ref>{{Citation |title=You might not want to scroll down! Dr. Bruce Lipton "BE AWARE OF THIS!" | date=March 20, 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO0kKCkzemg |access-date=October 30, 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Bruce Lipton - Immunology and Vaccines | date=July 22, 2015 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYcLMy3r_DA |access-date=October 30, 2023 |language=en}}</ref> He may believe that "forcing the immune system to respond to these vaccinations in such an abnormal way is not in the best interest of the body's system" and that for vaccines to work, they must be "natural".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dr Bruce Lipton: His views on Vaccinations - we've got it all wrong! - GreenplanetFM Podcast |url=https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-greenplanetfm-podcast-27722292/episode/dr-bruce-lipton-his-views-on-29216961/ |access-date=October 30, 2023 |website=iHeart |language=en}}</ref> Lipton often uses the naturalistic fallacy.
Lipton's apparently anti-vaccine viewpoints contradict the overwhelming scientific consensus, which firmly establishes vaccines' safety and effectiveness in preventing various diseases.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=October 1, 2017 |title=Communicating science-based messages on vaccines |journal=Bulletin of the World Health Organization |volume=95 |issue=10 |pages=670–671 |doi=10.2471/BLT.17.021017 |issn=0042-9686 |pmc=5689193 |pmid=29147039}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dubé |first1=Ève |last2=Ward |first2=Jeremy K. |last3=Verger |first3=Pierre |last4=MacDonald |first4=Noni E. |date=April 1, 2021 |title=Vaccine Hesitancy, Acceptance, and Anti-Vaccination: Trends and Future Prospects for Public Health |journal=Annual Review of Public Health |language=en |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=175–191 |doi=10.1146/annurev-publhealth-090419-102240 |pmid=33798403 |s2cid=232774243 |issn=0163-7525|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=August 13, 2018 |title=Why is vaccination so important? |url=https://www.fhi.no/en/va/childhood-immunisation-programme/why-is-vaccination-so-important/ |access-date=October 30, 2023 |website=Norwegian Institute of Public Health |language=en}}</ref>
==Books== * ''The Biology of Belief – Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles'' (2005) * ''Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There from Here'' (2010) * ''The Honeymoon Effect: The Science of Creating Heaven on Earth'' (2013) * ''The Biology of Belief – 10th Anniversary Edition'' (2015)
==See also== * New Thought * Paul Pearsall * Quantum mysticism
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commonscat|Bruce Lipton}} * {{official|brucelipton.com}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipton, Bruce}} Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:21st-century American biologists Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers Category:American anti-vaccination activists Category:American developmental biologists Category:American former atheists and agnostics Category:Pennsylvania State University faculty Category:People from Mount Kisco, New York Category:Pseudoscientific biologists Category:Scientists from New York (state) Category:Quantum mysticism advocates Category:University of Virginia alumni Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty