Is it possible for organ transplant recipients to take on traits of their donor? Remember that the HeartMath Institute reports that “the heart communicates a steady stream of intuitive information to the mind and brain.” (See the June 11th post on Mystic Heart Song.)
“Personality changes following heart transplantation, which have been reported for decades, include accounts of recipients acquiring the personality characteristics of their donor. The four of many categories of personality changes are: (1) changes in preferences, (2) alterations in emotions/temperament, (3) modifications of identity, and (4) memories from the donor’s life. The acquisition of donor personality characteristics by recipients following heart transplantation is hypothesized to occur via the transfer of cellular memory or memory existing in cells throughout the body.
On March 11, 2021, Kristy Sidlar woke up with a new heart. After a life-saving transplant, the 52-year-old was groggy and faded in and out of consciousness. Once she was cogent, her first thoughts were about her donor: ‘I said to my husband, I feel like I have the heart of a mid-30s woman. She had a rough life. She came from a rural area and had a tough upbringing.’
Why did that thought pop into Sidlar’s head? Is it possible for biographical or other information—a favorite food, a musical taste, a unique phobia, a memory of a traumatic, even fatal, injury—to be transferred from one individual to another through the heart? It seems inconceivable. Yet this phenomenon may well occur.
Documented cases are both extremely rare and utterly shocking. One possible interpretation of these stories involves scientists questioning the conventional wisdom about how memories are created and retained. In a 2020 study published in the journal Medical Hypotheses, University of Colorado psychiatrist Mitchell Liester reviewed cases of personality changes in the literature. He examined the extent to which heart transplant recipients may take on tastes, preferences, fears, memories, and components of identity, all of which bore a similarity to their donors.
‘This is much bigger than just neuroscience,’ Levin says. ‘It gets at the deep question of how cells work together in the first place. The field of diverse intelligence is critical for everything from artificial intelligence to regenerative medicine.’
The question of whether memories can transfer from one organism or being to another stands at a biological crossroads. The answer, when it arrives, will shed light on the science of memory, and may inform cutting-edge technology in the future. Until then, we can simply marvel at the mystery.”
www.sciencedirect.com, www.psychologytoday.com
