This chapter starts by introducing a study performed by psychologist Ellen Langer, in which men in their 70s and 80s were instructed to act as if it were 20 years in the past. Their surroundings were altered to induce this state, with magazines from 20 years ago, TV shows from 20 years ago, and no technology from after that stage allowed on the premises. After a week, these men improved in health and mental state, as if they had actually become younger.

Dispenza uses this example to begin discussing DNA. DNA, contained in the nucleus of every living cell in our bodies, produces proteins according to their own individual sequences. These proteins instruct different vital systems and mechanisms in the body. Genes were long considered to determine almost every aspect of a human being’s identity and body, and to be essentially unchangeable, but the field of epigenetics shows that this model is too simplistic. Gene information is created at birth, but gene expression, the selective switching on-and-off of specific genetic instructions, is influenced by internal and external factors like body health, age, diet, stress, and environment. Dispenza claims that the power of thought, belief, and/or prayer also has the ability to turn genes on and off, in the same way as these internal and external characteristics.