Cellular memory is the theory that human body cells contain
our personalities, tastes, and histories, independently of either genetic codes or
brain cells.
Experts of this theory claim when an organ is placed in the body, the information
and energy stored in the organ is passed on to the recipient. The theory
applies to any organ that has cells that are interconnected. They could be
kidneys, liver and even muscles.
Common quirks recorded have been changes in attitude,
temperament, vocabulary, patience levels, philosophies, and tastes in
food and music. The phenomena has just recently been put into studies.
The most notable studies was Dr Paul Peasall's questioning of 150 heart
transplant patients which was published in Near-Death Studies magazine
in 2002 entitled "Changes in Heart Transplant Recipients That Parallel
the Personalities of Their Donors.
Claire Sylvia received a heart transplant. The donor was an 18-year-old male who had been killed in a motorcycle accident. None of this information was known to Sylvia. Upon waking up she claimed
she had a new and intense craving for beer, chicken nuggets, and green
peppers, all food she didn't enjoy prior to the surgery. She found herself acting more masculine, strutting down the street. Sylvia even began having recurring dreams about a mystery man named Tim L., who she had a feeling was her donor. Upon meeting the family of the donor, Sylvia discovered that her donor’s name was, in fact, Tim L., and that all the changes she had been experiencing closely replicated Tim’s.
William Sheridan's drawing skills were stuck at nursery level. His stick figures were the sort you would expect of a child. But as he recovered after a heart transplant, he was suddenly
blessed with an artistic talent he simply did not have prior to the surgery. He produced beautiful drawings of wildlife and landscapes. He was
even more amazed when he discovered the man who donated his new heart was a keen artist.
A
47 year old man receiving a heart from a 17 year old boy suddenly
picked up an intense fondness for classical music. The boy whose heart
had been donated was killed in a drive-by shooting, still clutching his
violin case in his hands.
A 47 year old transplant patient claimed that
his new heart was responsible for a sudden onset of eating disorders, the heart's previous owner, was a 14 year old girl.
A twenty seven year
old lesbian who soon after getting a new heart settled down and married a
man.
Dottie O'Connor, was terrified of heights her whole life. She also suffered from cystic fibrosis. She received a lung transplant from a man she
learned was a 37-year-old mountain climber. O'Connor, who has made it a tradition to climb a
different mountain on that date each yea rto place a yellow rose on top in memory of her donor.
"I almost feel like he's climbing with me," she says, "because when I
take the steps, those are his lungs." She says she now has a profound
feeling of being at home whenever she drives or flies near mountains.
"It's very strange," she says. "How can you explain that?"
Bill Wohl was a hard-driving self-described type A executive until
cardiac disease nearly killed him in 2000. A heart transplant saved his life—and transformed it
in ways he could never have imagined. Weeks after his operation, Wohl,
now 58, heard a song on the radio by the British vocalist Sade. "I just
started crying and rocking," he recalls. Odd, since before the surgery,
Wohl hadn't heard of Sade and was not the type to mist up over a
song. Later he contacted the family of organ donor Michael Brady, the
36-year-old Hollywood stuntman whose heart he had received, and made an
intriguing discovery. Sade was one of Brady's favorite singers.
Jamie Sherman. A native of southern Arizona, an area peppered with
Mexican restaurants, Sherman, who was born with a heart defect, didn't
develop a taste for the cuisine until she received a transplant in
November 2001. Soon after, she had a strong and regular craving for
cheese enchiladas, bean burritos and soft tacos. Sherman, 28, also says
she emerged from the operation with a deep sense of anger. "I couldn't
understand where it was coming from," she says.
Six months after the surgery, Sherman, like many transplant patients,
was able to contact the family of her heart donor. His name was Scott
Phillips, he had worked as a computer programmer and happened to love
cheese enchiladas. But it was the circumstances of his death, says
Sherman, that have helped her to understand her anger. "His mother told
me, 'Scott died in a fight,' " says Sherman. "It was important to
understand these feelings when everything else in my life was going so
well." Meeting Sherman in person in January 2003 also brought comfort to
the donor's family, who felt, to some degree at least, as if they were
once again in the presence of a loved one. "His mother said to me, 'Even
though you have different color eyes, I can still see him through you."
The most stunning example of cellular memory was found in an eight
year old girl who received the heart of a ten year old girl. The
recipient was plagued after surgery with vivid nightmares about an
attacker and a girl being murdered. After being brought to a
psychiatrist her nightmares proved to be so vivid and real that the
psychiatrist believed them to be genuine memories. As it turns out the
ten year old whose heart she had just received was murdered and due to
the recipients violent reoccurring dreams she was able to describe the
events of that horrible encounter and the murderer so well that police
soon apprehended, arrested, and convicted the killer.
Some members of the scientific community and of society,
as a whole, may brush this off as being merely a strange coincidence. We
all know that life is just one big giant experience right? (sarcasm)
Scientists of course will attempt to debunk anything unexplainable. Maybe they should allow some mysteries of the world to remain unexplainable and allow people to restore their faith.
This post was inspired by a recent film I watched called, "The Eye"
staring Jessica Alba. It was a great film that explored the concept of
cellular memory. A blind woman received a cornea transplant in which she
inherited her donor's ability to see paranormal entities.
My sister has a kneecap from a deceased human, Hmm! I wonder if she unknowingly retained some of their habits?
