SANTA ROSA, CA. The book Mind to Matter by Dawson Church has been named “Best Health Book of 2018” by American Book Fest. Subtitled The Astonishing Science of How Your Brain Creates Material Reality, the book reviews over 400 scientific studies demonstrating the link between human imagination and the material world.

This research shows that our thoughts trigger changes both inside and outside our bodies. When we’re stressed, our bodies respond by synthesizing hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. When we relax, the process goes into reverse, with hormones like melatonin and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) predominating. This produces large changes in health and longevity, with studies showing that people who think positively, like optimists and meditators, can add over 10 years to their lifespans.

Our thoughts also affect material reality outside our bodies. In a series of experiments with water, which is composed of one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms, the bonding angle between the three atoms changed significantly when exposed to healing energy. Other studies show that the human mind is able to affect some of the four fundamental forces of physics. Author Dawson Church reviews research using EEGs and MRIs to distinguish between people with coherent and incoherent brain function. He finds that people with coherent brain waves are much more effective at producing change.

“The book began as a series of radio interviews with distinguished scientists,” says Church, “and I thought I would find big gaps in the chain of scientific evidence linking thoughts to things. I was astonished to find that we can explain every link in the chain scientifically, including phenomena like synchronicity and distant healing.” The book also recounts the personal stories of dozens of people who produced startling outcomes in the material world using their consciousness, from the remission of cancer to precipitating saline reactions in a lab at MIT.

The American Book Fest Awards, now in their 16th year, drew over 2,000 entries from both mainstream and independent publishers. Winners were selected by a panel of independent publishing industry professionals. Church’s earlier book about genetics, The Genie in Your Genes, won best book honors in the Science category a decade ago.

Mind to Matter has been among Amazon’s best-selling neuroscience books since its release. According to the book’s web site, it has inspired thousands of people to practice meditation, acupressure, grounding, and some 30 other techniques Church advocates to cultivate mental coherence.