Memories of the Heart

Transplanting Memories http://www.viddler.com/explore/hawker1009/videos/4/
The above video is rather long so you might want to avoid it. I can summarize it pretty well.

Quick Summary:
-heart transplant recipients have reported characteristic changes (tastes, personality, fears, charisma, music tastes, etc.) quite similar to those of their donors (approx. 5%-10%)

-presents the idea that memories have the potential to be transferred from donor to recipient

-researchers at the institute of HeartMath have discovered a grouping of neurons present in the heart with its own nervous system (behaves similarly to the brain)

-though still not an accepted concept in mainstream science, the heart may play a greater role in our emotions than we originally believed

First off, if you're skeptical just try to open your mind to the possibility for a moment to how this might be possible and what implications this might have on us if it does prove to carry weight. I'm not here to defend one side or the other, but to present possibilities. Yes the figure may appear low, but the level of coincidence between the changed behaviours being eerily similar is too large to be dismissed as merely trauma from the operation.

It's true all of the body is connected to the brain, but for the heart this is doubly true. In the video, the idea is that we learn through a never-ending cycle of feedback. We get better at shooting a basketball through the feedback of what technique works and what doesn't. The brain and heart are in connection more than any other organ and scientists propose it is so strong, information is able to be passed through the heart and even partially retained there in a unique grouping of neurons. It may even generate its own information about emotion apparently.


...there are no words to describe this



A fantastic analogy my friend Cam made to this idea of the heart transplanting memories is that it is in a way the same idea as transplanting a plant from one garden to another. Say the soil is the mind and the plant is the physical heart and you move that plant from one patch of soil to another. That plant may hold on to some of the soil from the original garden on its roots, which would mix in with the new soil. If the heart is able to retain information from the brain it actually seems possible, like the brain leaving an imprint on the heart. Then as the new organ is introduced to the brain-heart feedback, that residual information may be drawn upon.

For some reason I really like the idea of the brain being able to leave an imprint on the body and it kinda draws back to the whole, "Which is more important? The body or mind?" concept. Personally, I believe the mind governs the physical body, but again it's really interesting seeing how the mind may influence the body. It's almost like giving two people the same empty bedroom and they each customize it based on their own unique personalities. If our ideas and thoughts can influence the world around us, who's the say that they can't affect our physical shells? If the documentary is true, perhaps we should be paying closer attention to the heart instead of focusing exclusively from the neck up. As the video said, it's not about the idea of limiting our being to the cognitive abilities of one or the other, but exploring the possibility of "and".

Never stop questioning.