Cellular memory is a difficult beast to pin down, it is supported by hundreds of compelling anecdotal accounts but science has yet to pin down any kind of mechanism that could account for it. This, of course, might be a case of science lagging behind the evidence but it also has a mythic feel to it (where organs are instilled with their own vitality and influence on the body. In fact I mixed myth and cellular memory in my story "Prometheus Unbound"). However, until the science and the evidence come into synch, we only have the reports from people who believe their organ transplants have been life changing in more ways than one, like this:
It seemed too real to be mere coincidence - and it brought joy to Kaden Delaney's family.
Kaden's parents Greg and Shelley spent two years finding David Waters, whose life was saved when he received their son's heart after he died in a car crash. But in an exchange of emails they learned Mr Waters amazingly had developed a taste for Burger Rings - which was Kaden's favourite snack treat.
Some background (see also the documentary below the fold):
The theory the brain is not the only organ to store memories or personality traits and memory as a process can form in other parts of the body such as the heart has been coined "cellular memory".
The most famous reported case was American Claire Sylvia, a heart-lung transplant recipient, who documented her sudden craving for beer, chicken nuggets and green peppers in a best-selling memoir after discovering her donor was an 18-year-old male who died in a motorcycle accident.
Westmead Millennium Institute professor and president of the International Transplantation Society Jeremy Chapman said the phenomenon had not been proven.
"There is no scientific basis of such a claim," he said. "There's so much fiction around transplants."
Transplanting memories
"Transplanting memories" was a Channel 4 documentary shown in 2006, you can watch it all online here but that might be region restricted (as it is a UK TV channel) so for everyone else here it is via YouTube in 4 part:
http://www.wunderkabinett.co.uk/damndat ... emory.html
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
