More On Cellular Memory. New Heart, New Personality, Too? February 17, 2009
Posted by Bob Aronson in Cellular Memory.trackback
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I have been writing this blog for over a year, and it is with great interest that I watch which of my posts gets the most attention. Cellular Memory – Organ Recipients with Characteristics of Donors is far and away the most popular of all the columns I have written by a factor of over two to one. Why is that? Why are so many people so interested in the possibility of adopting the characteristics of a total stranger? I had a heart transplant eighteen months ago and have adopted no new characteristics but apparently that’s not true of all organ recipients. Heart transplant patients lead the way in saying they have changed — taken on some of the characteristics of their donors and some of their stories are compelling.
I am not here to promote nor deny the existence of cellular memory I just find the topic fascinating especially because so many of my readers do. Not long ago The Discovery Health Channel aired a program titled “Transplanting Memories.” http://dsc.discovery.com/ In the show experts explained why they believe in the concept. Georgetown University Professor, Dr. Candace Pert, said she believes the mind is not just in the brain, but also exists throughout the body. “The mind and body communicate with each other through chemicals known as peptides,” she said. “These peptides are found in the brain as well as in the stomach, muscles and all of our major organs. I believe that memory can be accessed anywhere in the peptide/receptor network. For instance, a memory associated with food may be linked to the pancreas or liver and such associations can be transplanted from one person to another.”
Another expert, German neurologist, Leopold Auerbach, discovered over a century ago that a complex network of nerve cells, like those of the human brain, exist in the intestines. And — Professor Wolfgang Prinz, of the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research, Munich, discussed the “second brain” in Geo, a German science magazine. Prinz said the digestive track is made up of a knot of about 100 billion brain nerve cells, more than found in the spinal cord. The article suggested the cells may save information on physical reactions to mental processes and give out signals to influence later decisions. It may also be involved in emotional reactions to events.
Perhaps all of this explains the many stories on the internet of transplant patients taking on the personalities of their donors.
If you really want to explore this phenomenon I strongly encourage you to read Knowing By Heart: Cellular Memory in Heart Transplants by Kate Ruth Linton in the MONTGOMERY COLLEGE STUDENT JOURNAL OF SCIENCE & MATHEMATICS
Volume 2 September 2003, http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/StudentJournal/volume2/kate.pdf.
Ms. Linton writes: “On May 29, 1988, a woman named Claire Sylvia received the heart of an 18-year-old
male who had been killed in a motorcycle accident. Soon after the operation, Sylvia
noticed some distinct changes in her attitudes, habits, and tastes. She found herself acting
more masculine, strutting down the street (which, being a dancer, was not her usual
manner of walking). She began craving foods, such as green peppers and beer, which she
had always disliked before. Sylvia even began having recurring dreams about a mystery
man named Tim L., who she had a feeling was her donor.
As it turns out, he was. Upon meeting the “family of her heart” as she put it, Sylvia
discovered that her donor’s name was, in fact, Tim L., and that all the changes she had
been experiencing in her attitudes, tastes, and habits closely mirrored that of Tim’s.”
Several transplant surgeons have contributed to a theory for cellular memory essentially
based on psychological and metaphysical conditions, which Dr. Paul Pearsall has pieced
together. Pearsall is a psychoneuroimmunologist, or a licensed psychologist who studies
the relationship between the brain, immune system, and an individual’s life experiences. Pearsall calls this theory the “Lowered Recall Threshold” Basically, it suggests that the immunosuppressive drugs that transplant recipients must take are what bring about associations to donor experiences in recipients. Immunosuppressive drugs minimize the chances of rejection of the new, foreign heart by suppressing the recipient’s immune system. Scientists believe these drugs could also possibly act as psychotropic, meaning “acting on the mind.”
There are many interesting passages in this treatise but you should read it for yourself — in its entirety. If nothing else you will find it very, very thought provoking. There’s a lot of information on this subject on the internet. You might also be interested in: http://medhum.blogspot.com/2006/06/mindshock-transplanting-memories.html
Please comment in the space below or email your thoughts to me at Jaxbob@gmail.com.
Please read and comment on my World Wide Issues blogs on http://blogsbybob.wordpress.com. Also…visit my Facebook site, Organ Transplant Patients, Friends and You at http://tinyurl.com/225cfh OR — my Facebook home page http://www.facebook.com/home.php
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A Facebook friend sent this link and I thought I’d share it with those of you who are interested in the cellular memory issue. Just paste this into your browser. The video is in four parts and it’s a little long but you’ll be captivated as I was.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sudmW97FZA0
Bob Aronson
I definitely believe in cellular memory and not just for hearts.
I’ve had a liver transplant and had the pleasure of knowing my donor as it was a living donor transplant.
My cousin is an avid biker and one of the first things I wanted to do when I got well was ride a bike.
Also, she is attracted to a certain type of man that I was never attracted to and now I am married to just such a man.
One of my female friends that also got a liver transplant was very interested in wrestling after her transplant and she received the liver of a male cadaver.
Anyway, cellular memory is real and it is experienced in some capacity by other transplant recipients
I had a friend who had a lung transplant and her sister attests to the change in her tastes afterward. She suddenly craved spicy foods, which she had always hated. She started loving football, something she had never been interested in. And somehow, she knew her donor was a young male Hispanic. Sure enough, a few years later, she met the donor’s family in an emotional meeting, and discovered it was in fact, a teenaged male Hispanic. She said she had a strange question for the family, and asked if the donor had liked spicy food or football. They said he loved spicy food and had been a football fanatic. I would never have believed it, had I not known this woman to be the most honest, unpretentious, and drama-eschewing person. I now think there is definitely cellular memory. I’m not sure how it works, but convinced there is something to it.