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Organ transplant recipients retain memories of their donors
Silouan
Veteran
After reading the discussions on the recent post, “How can rebirth exist when it goes against the scientific laws”, it got me thinking about a related subject, resurrection. I'm not asserting resurrection over rebirth in this post, but merely showing another way of examining the mind and body relationship.
Discussing the soul and its relationship to the body is a very difficult subject. The soul is considered the ineffable essence of intelligence, has certain faculties, but with no spatial limitations. In many ways it is very similar to that of mind in Buddhism, but where the higher faculty of a soul, called the nous, is a reflection or image of its archetype, mind is mind.
The soul does not come into existence before the body, as they constitute the whole person and arise simultaneously at the instance of their creation. According to St Maximus the confessor, "All created things are defined, in their essence and in their way of developing, by their own logoi and by the logoi of the beings that provide their external context. Through these logoi they find their defining limits." The logoi can be understood as the inner essences or principles of the components of the cosmos created by the Logos.
St Maximus further states, "If by reason and wisdom a person comes to understand that what exists was brought out of non-being into being by God, if he intelligently directs the soul's imagination to the infinite differences and variety of things as they exist by nature and turns his questing eye with understanding towards the intelligible model according to which things have been made, would he not know that the one Logos is many logoi? This is evident in the incomparable differences among created things. For each is unmistakably unique in itself and its identity remains distinct in relation to other things. He will also know that the many logoi are the one Logos to whom all things are related and who exists in himself without confusion, the essential and individually distinctive God, the Logos of God the Father."
It appears that some areas of scientific study are now beginning to recognize the interconnectedness of the mind and body, and though not scientifically proven at this point, there are several reports of organ transplant recipients retaining memories of their respective donors that have been verified by surviving family members. The heart organ appears to be especially significant in retaining memories, and it is very interesting that some forms of Buddhism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity consider the heart of the mind situated there.
If interested, here is a link to a college paper on the topic of cellular memory:
montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/StudentJournal/volume2/kate.pdf
Discussing the soul and its relationship to the body is a very difficult subject. The soul is considered the ineffable essence of intelligence, has certain faculties, but with no spatial limitations. In many ways it is very similar to that of mind in Buddhism, but where the higher faculty of a soul, called the nous, is a reflection or image of its archetype, mind is mind.
The soul does not come into existence before the body, as they constitute the whole person and arise simultaneously at the instance of their creation. According to St Maximus the confessor, "All created things are defined, in their essence and in their way of developing, by their own logoi and by the logoi of the beings that provide their external context. Through these logoi they find their defining limits." The logoi can be understood as the inner essences or principles of the components of the cosmos created by the Logos.
St Maximus further states, "If by reason and wisdom a person comes to understand that what exists was brought out of non-being into being by God, if he intelligently directs the soul's imagination to the infinite differences and variety of things as they exist by nature and turns his questing eye with understanding towards the intelligible model according to which things have been made, would he not know that the one Logos is many logoi? This is evident in the incomparable differences among created things. For each is unmistakably unique in itself and its identity remains distinct in relation to other things. He will also know that the many logoi are the one Logos to whom all things are related and who exists in himself without confusion, the essential and individually distinctive God, the Logos of God the Father."
It appears that some areas of scientific study are now beginning to recognize the interconnectedness of the mind and body, and though not scientifically proven at this point, there are several reports of organ transplant recipients retaining memories of their respective donors that have been verified by surviving family members. The heart organ appears to be especially significant in retaining memories, and it is very interesting that some forms of Buddhism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity consider the heart of the mind situated there.
If interested, here is a link to a college paper on the topic of cellular memory:
montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/StudentJournal/volume2/kate.pdf
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Comments
People tend to think that we're just a brain with some organs hanging off of it, but the truth is we have tons of ganglia (think tiny, tiny, brains) situated within vital organs, like the heart and stomach, that facilitate their functioning.
We don't really know how memory engrams form, how they're stored or retrieved in much detail, so it's possible that the ganglia and related nerve clusters within organs do retain some form of memory. Though I'd be more inclined to believe people who say they acquire a new favorite food or penchant for exercise than I would claims of specific event-related memories.
Whether real or imagined, why would you treat this phenomena as different from any other phenomena that arises within a meditation practice. Is ownership identification relevant.
(There should be question marks after these sentences but my new wireless keyboard has a mind of it's own......Hmmmm, strangely relevant.)
It's a well-documented fact that cells are present in organs which emulate and behave like brain cells. The organs themselves have cells which are also found in the cerebellum, so intrinsically, organs also have 'brain matter' within them.
I thought most people knew that.
There's nothing there to indicate the presence of a soul....
http://www.innerbalanceconsulting.com/new-science/neurocardiology-your-heart-has-a-brain/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18779997
The mind that is concerned with spiritual things is very different from one that is carnal and clings to the earth. Perceiving the presence of the soul or mind doesn't start from the physical and then work inward, but rather the opposite. Spiritual perception requires the faculty of intelligence or nous, not our normal idea of intelligence, to be purified through ascetic practice.
Also, I may be a simpleton, and don't have extensive scientific knowledge, but I do know this. I no longer, in blind faith, accept what our institutions promote in the name of science just because they say so, particularly new discoveries, because it changes and there are many contrary points of view that we typically aren't exposed to, so I have a healthy dose of skepticism there. Even the document I linked has varying view points despite a common understanding of the basic premise.
However, my main point is that Buddhism and Christianity each have understood a certain relationship between body and mind respectively in their traditions centuries before it began to be explored in science, and actually for my part I have no need to question the laws of nature perceptible to science since they may be seen as manifestations of the logoi of created things, and I know those laws and scientific thoughts are always moving, so I’m not too attached to them anyway.
However, I've long felt that one major purpose of our brain and the higher functions of thought is to rationalise the decisions and behaviour that deeper parts of our sub-consciousness (perhaps extending outside of the brain itself) have already made, or about to do. We take a step, eat some food or react to someone/something and then decide on the reasons why we did that, all often without any active thought preceding it. Which comes first, action or thought? The answer seems obvious, but is it always?
Given that our nervous system extends from the brain to every part of our body and we don't understand what thought specifically is, maybe there is more to our thoughts and identity than the just brain tissue in our heads?
But yes, it's not that we have a brain with a spinal cord and a separate body. Neurons are woven into every bit of our body and the brain can do miraculous things with our cellular process.