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DNA - The Basis of Life

NOTE: This is an unpublished paper. It is a brief look at DNA and its role in life.

We seldom spend enough time thinking about the wondrous universe in which we live. As a consequence, many vital aspects of life and its meaning escape our attention. Put yourself in the position of a Creator which possesses a depth of consciousness that we cannot even begin to fathom. There are millions of life-forms to be created with an infinite range of qualities and appearances.

With just four chemicals, Adenine, Cytosine, Thymine and Guanine, arranged in two pairs, it was possible to create all the varied lives on earth, ranging from the smallest bacteria to the largest mammal. Those two pairs, arranged in enormously long sequences, provide what we know as a double strand of DNA. The DNA strand contains the genes, each of which consists of several hundred thousand to over a million base pairs of nucleotides, the two basic pairs of chemicals.

Just visualise the DNA strand for starters - it is 1.8 metres long, contains some 30,000 genes which occupy only 1.1 per cent of the length of the strand, most of the rest being classed as 'junk DNA', and is present in every one of the more than 75 trillion cells in the human body. Those 30,000 genes are responsible for the production of the 250,000 proteins which our bodies rely upon to maintain their life and health. If the DNA was truly only of material substance the possibility of 'squeezing' that 1.8 metre length into a cell nucleus, which is a mere one-hundredth of a millimetre in diameter, would seem, to the average mind a complete impossibility. You have already heard Tad, however, speaking about quantum mechanics and the fact that all life in the universe consists of particles of consciousness, so on that basis it is somewhat easier to accommodate the 'squeezing' that is necessary.

Life began through the agency of bacteria, those ubiquitous life-forms that clumped together to form multicellular organisms and right through the evolutionary scheme to the human being of today. The first two full billion years of life on earth consisted solely of bacteria. It was the bacteria, cells with no nucleus, that transformed the earth's surface and its atmosphere, and invented all of the miniaturised chemical systems of fermentation, photosynthesis, oxygen-breathing and the removal of nitrogen from the air.

Our bodies contain what can be called the history of the earth. They maintain a body environment very similar to that of the earth when life began and our body fluids are similar to that of the early seas.

There is a commonality of genes between species and this has come about because of the bacteria that were life's origin. As an example of this I note that there are only 300 unique genes in the human genome which are not in those of the mouse. A dog is 85 per cent identical to a human in terms of genetic sequences; compared to the 30,000 genes in a human being a fruit fly has 15,000, the simple roundworm has 20,000 and 113 of our genes have been transferred from bacteria.

Both bacteria and viruses contain DNA and we are all aware of how rapidly they can change their form and their effect on other life-forms. This happens not as a result of evolution but because of an ability to take up genes, and parts of genes, that they meet during the course of their existence. That is one reason why the transfer of genes across the species barrier is so contentious an issue in biotechnology. Because the transfer is not natural there are many opportunities for the transferred gene, or part of it, to be taken up by bacteria and viruses which would not otherwise happen.

When we talk about the basis of life some thought must be given to whether the life is to be a healthy one or one subject to various diseases and disabilities. DNA usually does contain mutated forms of some genes, which carry a predisposition to various detrimental effects on the quality of life. For example, the gene which has the potential to cause cystic fibrosis has, to-date, revealed over 400 different mutations.

The genome, which is the full set of chromosomes containing the genes, is a highly interwoven network which contains feedback loops, the genes directly and indirectly affecting each other's activities. The environment also plays a part in this interaction in order to allow life-forms to adapt to changed surroundings.

It is now possible to acknowledge that all life is connected at a basic level. Even atoms have a form of consciousness, which exists within the overall consciousness of the Creative Being. As there is this common thread of consciousness it can be reasonable to state that it is quite within the realms of possibility that all life throughout the universe has DNA as its basic constituent.

In this regard I recall many, many years ago thinking to myself that comets are the spermatozoa of the universe. They move through space, shedding matter from their tails, so it was no surprise when I read in the New Scientist last year that in 1977 and again in the year 2000, that scientists concluded, from experimentation and theorising, that the building blocks of DNA have formed in space thus backing the idea that comets seed the basics for the formation of life on planets and also the injection of new material throughout a planet's life.

Returning to the hundreds of thousands of sequences of the two basic pairs of chemicals which form a gene it can be concluded that this provides an infinity of combinations to produce an infinity of life-forms. It is possible, however, that the Creative Being has more than two pairs of chemicals with which to create. Researchers at an institute in California succeeded in creating a DNA strand with an additional, and different pair, of chemicals, which could replicate itself. This adds to the theme that DNA is the basis of life.

One of the mystery's of life is how birds know when, and where, to migrate; why salmon return to the river they were born in order to spawn, and the many other common functions that a species possesses

Our genes do not program us and this is apparent from the fact that if the program was carried in the genes all the cells would be programmed identically because they carry the same genes. There must be a formative influence that exists outside of the DNA and this is where the concept of a morphogenetic field arises. With this as a possible cause one can visualise that each species, with its particular DNA construct, has an over-arching energy field which pulses in accordance with the common vibration of the DNA of the species, and this acts as a template for the construction and activities of the bodies within it. Whenever there are significant or sufficient changes of a like nature within the entire organism i.e., the species, the template is altered so that future forms within the species will have a tendency to reflect the basic mutation.

A somewhat loose analogy is that of a computer software program that is supposed to ensure that all the data run through it turns out in the same mould. If there are bugs (mutations) in the program they will change the template and produce results that are at variance with the original program.

In the course of researching material for a book I am writing I came across a reference to an article titled "Golden Helix". Pamela Bennett, the author of the article was attempting to use astrology as a master-key to the genetic coding of every human being, and possibly life itself. She had discovered that using a 72° dial, which is one-fifth of the 360° in the Zodiac, it revealed that certain planetary links continually recurred in the charts of parents and their children. The number five was said, by Pythagoras, to be related to marriage and if the numbers two and three, which add up to five are looked at separately they have a meaning of 'building into form' and 'family life and social contacts'

In her article she relates the four basic amino acids in DNA to the four elements of fire, earth, air and water and then devised a letter code for each Zodiac sign. She plausibly suggests it is possible to accept the five-turn spiral as a master-key to the genetic coding of every human being and possibly of life itself.

When we usually think about consciousness, which is the possession of the fact of being aware of oneself as an entity in its own right, it is normally related to current life experiences. There is good reason to believe, however, that life is not that simple and we now look at the beginning of the life of a universe. Science appears to agree that the universe started as a 'big bang' from a tiny point of matter, which in Einstein's theory, and later proved as such, as being equivalent to light.

All life gives out vibrations, waves of energy which can be pictured on an oscilloscope, an instrument which converts sound waves into light waves on a screen. As the intensity of the vibration builds up the waves disappear into a point of light. It can then be seen that the point of light contains within itself, everything at a lower vibration, and our dense physical plane is the lowest resulting vibration from that originating point of light.

In occult literature and thought there are seven planes of existence, each of which has seven subplanes. As the Word, which was God, was sounded it formed the highest of the seven planes, and consisted of the highest form of consciousness. Each succeeding plane became denser as the vibrations formed shallower and longer wavelengths. The God consciousness, as it descended, formed other creative beings and eventually Man the creator was formed.

If the purpose of God was to experience His creation there would have to be feedback and I believe this is the purpose of life as we experience it. Whenever there is a going forth there is usually a return and spiritual beliefs expound that Man will eventually regain his status as a spiritual being, in time ascending to a high enough plane whereby the physical body can be dispensed with. This necessitates a purification of Man's bodies which needs a much longer life span than an existence in just one body. That longer span is provided for by the process of reincarnation, the taking on of a series of bodies until such time as all the atoms in the three bodies are etherealised

I believe that DNA plays a major part in this progression of lives because there has to be a continuity of consciousness. Occult literature states that each personality carries within itself three permanent atoms which record the life history of that personality. Lest that seem a tall order, to carry one's history through perhaps hundreds of lives, just think of the memory that can be held on one small computer chip.

Does this explain the purpose of the 'junk' DNA which takes up virtually the entire length of the DNA strand. Perhaps what I had read earlier, about some scientific belief that there appears to be some intelligent order in the 'junk' DNA prompted the thought that came - the junk DNA is the vehicle used to convey one's history from life to life. As nature is usually very economical in her ways one is entitled to ask the question - why replicate some 95 per cent or so of something that is 'junk'?

I now go forward from that point and pose the question - is every layer of life-forms on each plane also fuelled with DNA? As DNA is only a structure of quantum particles, these being consciousness in essence, I suggest that it is not too far-fetched to believe that DNA truly is the basis of life in all of its infinite forms, in other words, it is a universal constant.