Graham Lutz Talks About How Studying Neuroscience Impacted His Life and His Willingness to be Wrong

Thanks to his early upbringing in a deeply conservative Christian upbringing, his views and thinking were boxed to be a certain way.

To think any different from the teachings attracted judgment and harsh criticism. They were right, and all others were wrong. Even other religions and communities that believed otherwise were wrong and posed threats.

But, he was living in a ‘safe’ space as all around him in their suburban neighborhood ascribed

to the same beliefs, and there was no one to challenge them.

Graham Lutz continued with this mentality into his early adulthood until he faced his first strong contradictory opinions, perspectives, and mentalities.

This was at Georgia State University, where he had enrolled as a biology and neuroscience major after considering a career change sparked by stagnation and financial woes.

His introductory biology professor had an interesting idea that would shake his belief system.

“For a theory to be scientifically valid, it must have both an explanatory and predictive power. That means if X happens, you should see Y results.” She explained

From the onset, this simple idea began his questioning of his Christian school teachings. If the world was created 6,138 years ago, where was the data to back this? College was providing evidence that the Earth was billions of years old.

Furthermore, science was showing that the genomes of all organisms contain indisputable evidence for evolution.

School was shaking the core foundations of his belief systems. And that was just the beginning.

Graham Lutz’s college mate and friend was Ahmed, a Pakistani Muslim. They frequently shared organic chemistry and molecular biology quizzes and laughter even though they were both passionate about their differing religions.

They were coexisting peacefully even though he had been taught that Muslims ‘hated America.’

And this marked the genesis of his questioning, what else did he believe was right but was wrong? The more they studied, the more he saw the evidence for evolution, the big bang, climate change, and the age of Earth. But he had been taught that only their perspective was right and everything else was wrong.

Was being wrong really a bad thing? And was he going to be right with false information against which he saw glaring evidence?

Studying neuroscience made Graham Lutz realize that everyone was wrong about something. His exposure to peers from different backgrounds made him acknowledge his limited thinking.

And that by holding on to such limited perspectives, his capacity for growth, empathy, and objective thinking was stunted.

Something had to give.

With the new exposure to science and amazing people from different backgrounds and perspectives about the world, Graham Lutz started the uncomfortable journey of shaking off his limiting beliefs and questioning his own programming.

He chose to adopt scientific thinking with curiosity, skepticism, and humility. Over the past decade and a half, he has exposed himself to more ideas and perspectives and expanded his worldviews.

Today, he has embarked on a mission to mentor others to overcome their limiting beliefs, change their personal narratives, and unlock their full potential. He shares educational content on his TikTok, giving insights about neurodiversity, mental health, and personal development alongside wild science and medical history.

Additionally, he is an author and is writing a book that explores more about our brains, focusing on compassion, empathy, and the power of changing perspectives. To cap it all, he holds workshops and courses where he expounds more on his writings and videos.