In this article we will examine the idea of cellular memory. This is a crucial aspect of the idea that the mind and body are not separate from one another. Their functions interpenetrate one within the other, each dependent on the other and each able to modify the other.
Could Memory Traces Exist in Cell Bodies?
A study published in 2015 suggests that memories might remain in a cell’s nucleus. This can enable future recall as well as the easy formation of a new, related memory.1
The mainstream theory is that long-term memories live at nerve synapses, spaces where impulses pass from one nerve cell to another. These memories supposedly fade if the synapses degrade.
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, studied sea slugs’ neurons only to find that a nerve cell body “knows” how many synapses it is supposed to form, meaning it is encoding a crucial part of memory.
They also found that a long-term memory could be erased (all synapses destroyed) and then re-formed with only a small reminder stimulus.
This suggests that information is being stored in a neuron’s body [or perhaps in a holographic field of consciousness that makes up the body].
Principal investigator David Glanzman said, “This is a radical idea, and I don’t deny it: memory really isn’t stored in synapses.”
This study aligns very nicely with our discussion of the holographic reality in Articles 132-137. Specifically, Article 135: The Holographic Universe – Dr. Karl Pribram & the Holographic Brain discusses scientific studies that point to the idea that memories are not only stored in the brain, but throughout the entire body (the physical body and spiritual body).
Characteristics of Cells
“Remember that cells have consciousness.
Cells possess “social” characteristics.
They have a tendency to unite with others.
They naturally communicate.
They naturally want to move.
Cells possess an inner knowledge of their own shapes, and of any other shapes in their immediate environment.
To some important degree, cells possess curiosity, an impetus toward action, a sense of their own balance, and a sense of being individual while being, for example, a part of a tissue or an organ.
The cell’s identification biologically is highly connected with this very precise knowledge of its own shape, or sometimes shapes.
Cells, then, know their own forms.
The cell’s stability, and its reliability in the bodily environment, is dependent upon its innate properties of instant communication and instant decision, for each cell is in communication with all others and is united with all others through fields of consciousness, in which each entity of whatever degree plays a part.
At one level your cells obey the rules of time, but on other levels they defy it.
All of these communications are a part of the human parcel of reality, and they all exist beneath what you think of as normal consciousness.”2
Cells & Continuous Change
“As most of you know, the atoms that compose your cells, as well as the cells themselves constantly die and are replaced.
The stuff of the internal organs changes and yet they always retain their form. Their identity is intact.
So is your own identity secure in the midst of all these births and deaths of which your conscious self is unaware.
The memory of all of the cells experiences is retained. Each cell remembers its past though all of its parts have been and are being continually replaced. [How could this be possible without a field of consciousness?]
The living flesh is quite aware of certain facts that escape you on a conscious level.
It knows it dies and is reborn constantly, and yet retains itself.
The body, while being always itself, comes and goes.
It does not feel less or diminished when a cell dies, for it is also in the process of forming a new one.”3
Memory
“The cells within your hand contain within themselves memories your conscious mind would be dazzled to behold.
As your cells have their own memories, so the conscious mind has a more overt kind of memory.
Your conscious thoughts act as triggers, bringing both kinds of memory into activation.
Within your physical being then each joyful, expanding, traumatic and tragic “past” event lies indelibly written.
There are in your memory the most complex organizations and associative frameworks, that exist both in the depths of your cellular structure and in the highest reaches of your conscious activity.”4
The Cell as Miniature Brains
“Think of your thoughts as living electromagnetic cells, differing from the physical cells in your body only in the nature of their materialization.
Your thoughts direct the overall functioning of your body’s cells, even though you do not consciously know how those cells operate. That work is unconscious.
Each physical cell is in its way a miniature brain, with memory of all of its personal experiences and of its relationship with other cells, and with the body as a whole.
In your terms this means that each cell operates with an innate picture of the body’s entire history – past, present, and future.
Now this picture is ever-changing and mobile.”5
How Cells work to create the Body
“An alteration in just one cell is instantly noted by the body consciousness and the future effect perceived.
This information is used together with all other data from the body, and a prediction made.
The body prediction is then assessed, and on more levels than it is possible to explain.
Briefly, the picture is “shown” in the invisible arena where flesh and spirit meet.
This arena is not a place, of course, but an inner state of gestalt consciousness.
The state is brought about through certain interactions that occur deep within the body.
Magnetic structures are formed.
They are created on a physical level through certain activations of the nerves in which the normal patterns are jumped, so to speak, and images are formed.
The nerves and the cellular structures at their tips take pictures.
These are all assembled and used to form the larger picture of the body’s condition.
These are not images as you think of them, but highly coded information, electromagnetically imprinted, that would not appear as images to the physical eye.
They cannot be perceived except by the body.
This predictive picture is then set against two models.
First it is checked against the body’s ideal standard of health in its individual case – its own greatest fulfillment.
Then it is checked against the image of the body sent to it by the conscious self. [This refers to personal beliefs and these may or may not be healthy.]
Correlations are made instantaneously.
In an organizational framework that would certainly be envied by the most advanced technological concern, communications spring back and forth with great rapidity.
The body makes whatever changes are necessary in order to bring the two images in line with the present corporeal condition.”6
Beliefs and the Body
“As you should know, the body’s inner environment changes constantly, and it is you who change it.
Change is quite necessary and as a rule the body’s overall balance is maintained.
But the directions that you give are often not clear or advantageous, and your beliefs largely determine the kind of information you send to that environment.
The inner self always attempts to maintain the body’s equilibrium and health, but many times your own beliefs prevent it from coming to your aid with even half of the energy available to it.
Often only when you are in dire straits do you open up the doors to this great energy, when it is much too clear that your previous beliefs and behavior have not worked.
You will be replenished and renewed as your thoughts motivate joyful body sensations and physical events, or you will be depressed as you bring into your awareness unpleasant past body happenings.”7
We will briefly introduce dynamical energy systems theory and then take a look at the work of Dr. Paul Pearsall to see how consciousness and memories can be intertwined with the DNA and cellular structure of organs during transplant.
“The recent integration of systems theory with the concept of energy (termed dynamical energy systems theory) provides compelling logic that leads to the prediction that all dynamical systems store information and energy to various degrees…Recurrent feedback loops exist in all atomic, molecular and cellular systems. Hence, evidence for atomic systemic memory, molecular systemic memory and cellular systemic memory should be found in these systems.”8
Dynamical Energy Systems Theory
“When systems theory is carefully applied to the concept of energy, some novel and far-reaching implications for modern physics and complementary medicine emerge. The heart of systems theory is dynamic interactions: systems do not simply act on systems; they interact with them in complex ways. By definition, systems at any level (e.g., physical, biological, social, ecological) are open to information, energy, and matter to varying degrees, and therefore interact with other systems to varying degrees.”9
“The conceptual chasm separating conventional medicine and alternative medicine can potentially be overcome by deriving hypotheses from modern systems theory and applying them to biophysical energy – what we call a dynamical energy systems approach.
In this paper we present five such hypotheses, using the heart, the largest generator of electromagnetic energy in the body, as a model system. Living systems are defined here as dynamic organizations of intelligent information expressed in energy and matter. When the biophysical consequences of organized energy are considered, far-reaching implications for the role of the heart in health and healing unfold (for example, the heart, in concert with the brain, may be the major organizer and integrator of coordinated cellular functioning in the body).
Procedures for measuring cardiac synchronized energy patterns are explained, and novel experimental predictions are illustrated (for example, that cardiac synchronized energy patterns may interact between people and be involved in certain therapies). Applications of energy cardiology hypotheses for conventional and alternative medicine are challenging, testable, and controversial. In the case of mind-body medicine, this approach both illuminates and expands the central role of the mind in health.”10
Organ Transplants and Cellular Memories
Dr. Paul Pearsall (1942-2007), a neuropsychologist and heart transplant doctor in Hawaii found that organ transplants often change the consciousness of the organ recipient. He was the author of over 200 professional articles and 18 books.
“It is not uncommon for memories, behaviors, preferences and habits associated with the donor to be transferred to the recipient.”11
Over a period of ten years Dr. Pearsall noticed strange personality changes in people who got organ transplants – specifically heart transplants. There were over 74 transplant cases, 23 of which were heart transplants that showed examples of this.
For example:
- A young woman, Claire Sylvia, a health-conscious dancer and choreographer, upon leaving the hospital, had the urge to eat KFC chicken nuggets, a food she never ate. Interestingly, uneaten KFC nuggets were found in the jacket of the young man (her donor) when he was killed.
She also found herself drawn to cool colors rather than bright reds and oranges she used to prefer. She also began to behave in an aggressive and impetuous manner, uncharacteristic of her, but characteristic of her donor.
- Another example involves an 18-year old boy killed in an automobile accident who donated his heart to an 18-year old girl diagnosed with endocarditis and subsequent heart failure.
The boy wrote poetry and music, and before he died, wrote about seeing his sudden death. He also wrote a song titled “Danny, My Heart Is Yours” about how he felt he would die and give his heart to someone named Danny. Interestingly, the recipient was a 18-year old girl named Danny.
She felt that the boy was her lover, maybe in a past life, and came to give her his heart.
After the transplant the girl, previously a “hell-raiser” became quiet and began to play a musical instrument and sing.
- Another case involved a 24-year old lesbian woman who died of an automobile accident and gave her heart to a 25-year old male graduate student. The woman, before her death, was a painter and painted landscapes that represented feminine energies.
The recipient, after the transplant, became a more sensual and sensitive lover. He wanted to hug and cuddle more; he started liking to shop and go to museums to view paintings.
- Another example involves a 17-year old black male student who was shot during a drive-by while walking to school. He died hugging his violin case. His heart was donated to a 47-year old male foundry worker.
After the transplant he became more at ease around black men, and he started to love listening to classical music all the time. He thought he should be love rap music, because the stereotype of all black people loving rap music, but the young man killed loved classical music, and as was noted, was killed while hugging his violin.
- Another example involves a 19-year old woman who died in a car accident who gave her heart to a 29-year old woman.
Before her death, the woman was a vegetarian who was in to free-love and had many male lovers. The recipient, before the transplant, was a gay woman who loved McDonalds.
After the transplant, the recipient felt she was no longer gay, and did not want to be with a woman, but loved her boyfriend and was sexually attracted to men. She also could no longer eat meat and became a vegetarian.
- Another example involves a 14-year old girl who died in a gymnastics accident and gave her heart to a 47-year old man.
Before the accident, the girl was anorexic, but also very giddy and excitable and giggled a lot.
After the transplant, the man felt like a teenager and gained a new giggling type laugh and became very nauseated about food and can barely eat without throwing up.
- Another example involves a 3-year old girl who drowned in a pool and gave her heart to a 9-year old boy. The boy became deathly afraid of water, but also feels the donor inside himself and talks to her at times. He says the donor is a very sad little girl who wishes parents wouldn’t throw their children away. (The donor’s parents worked a lot, were divorced, and paid her little attention before her death.)
- Another example involved a teenage heart donated to a middle-age recipient. The recipient started listening to rock music, lusting after young women, and driving fast.
- And one last example involved a 35-year old conservative woman who ended up getting the heart of a prostitute. The recipient then started wanting to have sex multiple times a day.
“Pearsall has informally observed that in addition to heart recipients, kidney, liver and other organ recipients also indicated changes in sense of smell, food preference and emotional factors. However, they were usually transitory and could be associated with medications and other factors of transplantation.
The findings for heart transplants appear more robust and were more strongly associated with the donor’s history.”12
We will end with a quote from Dr. Pearsall:
“The Hawaiians have always believed that it is through the heart that we know the truth. For them, the heart is as sentient as the brain. We find this same belief with the Hopi Indians in New Mexico, and with the Chinese; within many cultures the heart chakra is the key to healing.”
- Cosier, Susan, Could Memory Traces Exist in Cell Bodies? Scientific American, 1 May 2015, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/could-memory-traces-exist-in-cell-bodies/
- Roberts, Jane, Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1986
- Roberts, Jane, The Nature of Personal Reality, Amber-Allen Publishing, 1974
- ibid.
- ibid.
- ibid.
- ibid.
- Pearsall, Paul, Schwartz, Gary & Russek, Linda, Organ Transplants and Cellular Memories, Nexus Magazine, Vol 12, 3, April-May 2005, http://www.paulpearsall.com/info/press/3.html
- Schwartz GE & Russek LG, Dynamical energy systems and modern physics: fostering the science and spirit of complementary and alternative medicine, May 1997, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9141291
- Schwatz, GE, Energy cardiology: A dynamical energy system approach for integrating conventional and alternative medicine, Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, Volume 12, Issue 4, 1996, https://arizona.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/energy-cardiology-a-dynamical-energy-systems-approach-for-integra
- Pearsall, Paul, Schwartz, Gary & Russek, Linda, Organ Transplants and Cellular Memories, Nexus Magazine, Vol 12, 3, April-May 2005, http://www.paulpearsall.com/info/press/3.html
- ibid.
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