Home
Cellular Memory (II)
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 6
Previously: Cellular Memory 3 February 2009
Now, some 15 years later there have been an abundance of studies that do indeed suggest that memory and personality might continue and have influence on people that have had organ transplants, the memories & personalities of the deceased (donors) to the living (recipients).
Now, "memory" here is a tricky thing, and as it rather defines our existence I should clarify a few things. Memory surviving death is no new thing. This is the purpose of books, - to keep alive the memory of the author, of sculpture, art, architecture, which preserve if not the artist then the memory of their point of view, their genius. Our collective memory as a species has evolved, from the earliest oral traditions to reading, writing, film, audio, and now finally digital.
So then perhaps it's not memory, by it's nature non-local and outside ourselves, but our identity.
Our identities are largely shaped by the memories we have (and how we choose to remember them). Changes in physical self are a form of permanent memories, scars, most people remembering when/where/how they lost a limb, and their attendant feelings, or a certain relationship that altered their viewpoint on the world, or a catastrophic misfortune (or fortunate windfall) that completely and utterly remade their universe.
Consider the Bible (Western) as a form of collective memory - when it was (at one point) the one thing that Western Civilization had in common - everyone had at least some exposure to it, and many had considerable. Nevermind that it may well be largely (literally at least) lies & fiction, it formed in some ways a cornerstone of "our" memory. Even to react adversely to it is merely a matter of personal taste, there was no denying it's existence, merely it's relevance or veracity.
Now consider memories - starting with the simpler organisms and moving forward. A sea-sponge pressed through a sieve will over time reassemble itself. What memory(ies) does it have of it's prior existence? A planarian can be divided up to 279 times, and each piece will regrow itself and preserve a "memory" - for example, a trained response towards light. Is this now memory? Or is it identity and evolution? Consider that a woman diminishes her risk of miscarriage by indulging in performing oral sex. The habituation to the sperm/fluids of the male make her body less likely to reject the fetus. (Link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30980918/). A vaccine is the introduction of a "memory" into the body in preparation for a fight, much as Neo downloaded fight programs in "The Matrix".
Or of Epigenetic Triggers, which if activated before reproduction in Humans as well as other species pass the changes on to the offspring - memory, triggered, becomes a portion of identity in future generations.
Now on to the increasing evidence that organs (heart, kidneys, lungs, liver, etc) retain some portion of memory that survives upon transplant. I'm thinking of a bad Hollywood Movie wherein a heart transplant recipient unwittingly falls in love with the (naturally) deceased donor's wife.
But why not? We are all the sum of our parts?
Think here of the hand in The Addams Family, scurrying about on it's own nefarious business. Or the monster of Frankenstein, assembled from whatever was at hand, and therefor tearing itself apart with it's own separate ambitions.
There is so much research now being done on this, and - for a bit, a while, it seemed a romantic fiction, we took for granted the physical & chemical nature of the brain and thought it superseded all else, and there would no doubt be neurologists that would still argue this view, but it's time perhaps to take a broader look. Brain injury might impede the expression of personality and intelligence, but the brain might not be entirely the locus. Identity, personality, tastes even, are more probably bound up in the entirety of our physical existence than solely within our cranium.
And even that is coming under scrutiny...
Anyways, curious thoughts in curious directions.
Deathbed Confessions
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 11
Another "universality" - culturally at least - in death, is that of the "Deathbed Confession".
If you read any of the Reddit threads (Specifically #7) you might have noticed that many of those in their dying moments were revisited by unpleasant scenes in their past - one poster's father drowned kittens in a sack, then upon his deathbed reported his seeing his bed covered in kittens, another kindly old man reenacted a violent scene, then upon his death was found to have been a Nazi, with gold bars and teeth...and many other such tales.
Not all were of angelic visitations.
But surprisingly there were a lot of confessions - to hospice workers, priests, pastors, you have it - of crimes committed in life, generally violent, specifically rapes & murders. Most of these confessions were unsolicited - women, men confessing to having murdered their spouses, children, random murders, serial killer confessions. Confessions of soldiers at war, forgiven by the country that sent them but never themselves. As if at the last they realized that they didn't want to carry this with them to the grave, as if this final confession was enough to give some atonement.
And in some cases surely their deathbed visitations in all likelihood prompted the confessions.
Now, in those cases of those bound by marriage a great number of these murders probably went undetected. It's a simple thing to arrange an "accident" or "poison" ones spouse - and the law generally doesn't look too much into it.
In those cases where the crimes were known - missing people, and the dying attempted to expatiate upon the circumstances of the crime, disposal of the remains, etc - you wonder, how many of these are still open on the books - priests, pastors, clergy being bound to take confession and never speak of them - yet - once dead, who is hurt?
Only the living.
I mean, this knowledge could - not heal, but perhaps close a lot of wounds, and if you don't think this a common theme I'd suggest you read through the threads. I took a few hours and read through thousands. It happens a lot more often than you think.
And notice how the Catholic Church has formalized the process - Confession, Anointing of the Sick (formerly extreme unction) and final reception of holy Communion (Viaticum) - a process far older than the Church itself, the confession meant to lighten the soul, the communion to provide sustenance for the journey. In Judaism it's Vidui, in Islam Tawbah, certain Buddhist sects have Vajrasattva, all these are equivalents for Confession, and serve to put the dying at rest. But - judging from a great many of the confessions on the thread, it seems to be a deeper need, religion has merely formalized it.
Abby Wilson - Nelson Artist
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Other
- Hits: 12
While I'm not a fan of "representational" art, and find the subject matter (out here) overdone, I do admire her use of color and shapes. Much like what everyone else out here paints, only better. Currently showing at the Nelson Public Library.
Link: Abby Wilson Fine Art
Irving Finkel - The First Ghosts
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 11
And this, a book that I'm looking forward to reading but I have yet to come across, yet I don't want to break down and give Amazon any of my hard-earned money. Not that Jeff Bezos needs it, or I have any:
Link: The First Ghosts - Irving Finkel
Lectures on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFPeOi5H6Zo
And this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNNaZ110ee4
He's an erudite and charming lecturer and host. If more professors were like him I'd still be in college.
(*NB I'd have embedded the videos but having upgraded my Joomla! installation I'm already paying the price of broken components. When they've ironed out the bugs I'll go back and fix. For now this is easiest.)
Page 1 of 1017