Cellular memory
Cellular memory is the hypothesis that such things as memories, habits, interests, and tastes may somehow be stored in all the cells of human bodies, not only in the brain.
The suggestion is based largely around anecdotal evidence of organ transplants after which the recipient was reported to have developed new habits or memories.
Reports
An article published in 2000 in Integrative Medicine, a short lived alternative therapy journal, reported stories of organ recipients who “inherited” such traits as a love for classical music, a change of sexual orientation, and changes in diet and vocabulary. To date, no case where personality traits or memories have been passed from donor to recipient following an organ transplant has ever been recorded in a peer reviewed medical or scientific journal.
In fiction
In an episode of The Simpsons titled “Treehouse of Horror IX,” Homer Simpson gets a hair and scalp transplant from executed murderer Snake Jailbird. The hair literally takes control of Homer, causing him to go on a killing spree.
Cellular memory plays a large role in the science fiction series Dune. Several characters undergo transformations which unlock cellular memories of their ancestors, enabling them to relive at will the lives of those who came before them.
In the 1991 film “Body Parts“, Bill Chrushank (Played by Jeff Fahey) loses his arm in a car accident and a criminal psychologist has it replaced with a limb that belonged to a serial killer. This causes Bill Chrushank’s personality to change into that of the serial killer.
The 2008 film The Eye starring Jessica Alba and the novel Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult all feature the concept of cellular memory.
The video game Assassin’s Creed features a similar concept known as Genetic memory.
In the Metal Gear Solid video game series, the antagonist Revolver Ocelot receives a transplanted hand from another character, Liquid Snake, and takes on a new persona as Liquid Ocelot.
Shocking examples of cellular memory
Professor Gary Schwartz’s findings are backed up by Dr Paul Pearsall, author of The Heart’s Code, a book dealing with the same phenomenon.
Their casebook also includes:
- A woman who was terrified of heights until she was given the lungs of a mountain climber. Dottie O’Connor, from Massachusetts, is now a climber.
- A seven-year-old girl had nightmares about being killed after being given the heart of a child who had been murdered.
- Paul Oldam, a lawyer from Milwaukee, received the heart of a 14-year-old boy and inherited his craving for Snickers.
- And a man of 25 received a woman’s heart and, to his girlfriend’s delight, now wants to go shopping all the time.
Man given heart of suicide victim marries donor’s widow and then kills himself in exactly the same way
A man who received the transplanted heart of a suicide victim has killed himself in exactly the same way.
And, astonishingly, the same wife is mourning all over again.
Sonny Graham, who had received Terry Cottle’s heart, also went on to marry his widow.
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Heart transplant recipient Sonny Graham, pictured with wife Cheryl, commited suicideThe couple met after Mr Graham started writing to her after being told her husband was his heart donor.
Twelve years after the successful transplant operation, Mr Graham shot himself dead, leaving his wife a widow for the second time in strikingly similar circumstances.
Friends said Mrs Graham, a nurse, is stunned by the bizarre turn of events.
Officials in Vidalia, Georgia, said Mr Graham, 69, died after shooting himself in the throat with a shotgun.
He was found in a garage at the home the couple shared.
In 1995, Mr Graham had been on the verge of death due to congestive heart failure.
He had less than six months to live when the call came through from the Medical University of South Carolina, telling him that a heart had just become available.
It belonged to Mr Cottle, 33, who had committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.
Mr Graham went to the hospital from his home nearby and the heart was transplanted that day.
He did not know the identity of the donor, only that the heart belonged to a 33-year-old man.
A year later, Mr Graham contacted the organ donation agency wanting to thank the man’s family for the gift of life.
He began writing to Mr Cottle’s young widow Cheryl, a mother of four. The couple later met, fell in love, married and moved to Georgia.
Speaking shortly after their wedding, Mrs Graham said: “It helped me so much.
“Meeting Sonny made it easier for me, knowing something so good came from something so bad.”
Friends of Mr Graham said he had not shown any signs of being depressed.
Scientists say there are more than 70 documented cases of transplant patients having personality changes as they take on some of the characteristics of the donor.
Last month, a woman from Lancashire claimed her literary tastes changed radically following a kidney transplant.
Cheryl Johnson used to enjoy celebrity biographies and best sellers such as The Da Vinci Code.
But now she prefers classics such as Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.
Character changes in transplant recipients are known as cellular memory phenomenon.
However, medical experts are sceptical about the concept and insist there is little convincing evidence.
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