Genetic Memories
By Ontologic Education
25th January 2021 | Knowledge Base
Genetic Memory is the concept that we could perhaps be inheriting more than most people think from our ancestors. Could their very memories be stored or imprinted onto our DNA? In exploring this topic, it is of course fundamental to understand genetics and how they work. Stay tuned for our academic study section, which will cover this in detail, but quite simply genetics is the branch of biology (the study of living organisms) that pertains to heredity or inherited characteristics, which describes features passed from an organism to its offspring. So normally when dealing in what we inherit from those who came before us, we will be discussing physical appearances, such as your eyes, or the shape of your nose, etc. We know this is passed on from parent to child and you are likely to resemble your parents and siblings because of the shared genetic pool. But is it possible to inherit memories, not only from your parents, but also from those who came before them? Is it even possible to inherit abilities that are not physical in nature, but mental? Certainly there is evidence for the former, when we look at certain experiments that have been performed. Take rodents, for example. A test was run at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta whereby it was determined that mice whose father or grandfather learned to associate the smell of cherry blossom with pain, were more agitated in the presence of the scent. They had fear of a smell that they personally had never encountered problems with. And this is not the only example in the animal kingdom of memory that appears to be inherited from previous generations. Take Monarch butterflies; a species famous for their seasonal migration. Each year they make the trip from Canada to Mexico where they spend their winter. In the spring they begin their journey back north, but have stop to lay eggs on the way. The journey is then continued by the next generation of butterflies, with it usually taking at least three generations to complete. It means that no butterfly making the return journey has flown the entire route before, leading to the question, how do they know where to go? Is it inherited, almost like GPS instructions from their ancestors? Certainly what we do know, is there is certain knowledge of how to do things, which is passed on in humans. Babies know how to suck upon being born, without ever being taught. An instinct, that is genetic in nature. But what about memories of specific events, experiences, facts and happenings? The question asked is, if memories of these natures are truly passed on, then which memories, and what is the trigger to access them? Clearly we are not all walking around with vivid memories from our great, great grandparents. So how and why would we access such recollection? Is it fear that might trigger this as suggested with the rodent experiment? Another answer that we can present is, trauma. Can trauma, especially of the extreme kind, trigger an imprint on your DNA, which could be felt for generations to come? Let us take actor Michael K Williams. He played a role in 12 years a slave, and in an interview with Arsenio Hall, described an interesting experience on set. Here is a quote from that interview: There was a scene unfortunately it didn’t make the film…We were shooting this scene where my character Roberts is being dragged to the slave ship and he was revolting, he was frailing, he was going crazy. Around the fifth time that we shot it, Steve yelled cut and something came over me I don’t know what it was…I fell to the ground, I couldn’t stop crying and screaming…I couldn’t even get up off the floor. It was surreal The stunt coordinator he got on the floor with me, white man and he cradled me in his arms, and he rocked me and he kept saying, ‘It’s okay Mike let it out, let it out.’ And I screamed at the top of lungs, for what must’ve seemed like 15, 20 minutes. Like a cloud passed over me and I got up..I was like okay let’s go. I think what happened to me was that I was given a glimpse into what our ancestors must’ve went through.

An interesting experience, and one that suggests that perhaps he was pulling on a memory of someone in his family tree who had an experience, similar to the one he was acting out.

A traumatic event by nature, might be something we do not wish to recall too often. But perhaps whatever the event, if it is powerful enough, it might just leave a stamp that can be felt by those who come after you. Would we see examples of more positive memory recollection if we were, for example, making more movies about great times of those that came before us? It is certainly worth exploring.

General belief would have us think that whilst you are born with a complex organ known as the brain, it is essentially blank at birth. Void of any real knowledge that is not instinct. And that everything you come to know, was a culmination of your own direct experiences and what you have been told or taught during your life cycle. However when we investigate further, we find that there are even examples where complex abilities are formed at far too young an age for us to consider them ‘learnt’ in the traditional sense.

Take Savants for instance; these are people with extraordinary abilities, from the ability to memorise huge bulks of information in minutes, to also being able to perform a skill to an incredibly high level without any formal training. These skills are usually relating to some form of art, music or calculative abilities. Whatever the skill, it is usually associated with memory. The ability to call on anything that may aid with whatever skill they are so talented in.

Now these skills often unexpectedly appear at a young age, in areas the Savant has neither studied, nor been taught. But they innately and instinctively know these things. There have been easily researchable examples of people knowing the ‘rules of music’ without learning them. People who know how to turn a 2-dimensional image into a perfect 3D replica without having been taught the ‘rules of art’. These are skills that would usually take a person years to master, but these people seem to know things that are beyond their own existence. There are even examples of seemingly ‘normal’ people, gaining access to information or a random ability after some sort of trauma to their body: Usually a head injury. Could it be that the trauma they have suffered has triggered an activation of genetic memory?

The study of epigenetics has already taught us that genes may be turned on and off and different times. There have been examples of people recalling facts and details that only a specific person from the past may have known, which perhaps lends a hand more to the theory of reincarnation than genetic memory. Nevertheless these concepts of genetic memory, past lives and a collective consciousness, all intertwine at some point. Stay tuned for our upcoming article on Past Lives.

Now remember, it is already widely accepted that we can inherit physical characteristics such as weight, eye colour and even susceptibility to certain diseases. It is also acknowledged generally that certain talents and behavioural traits can run in the family, as the evidence for these things is a little bit overwhelming. The concept of Genetic Memory simply adds onto that; the idea that we perhaps inherit intricate knowledge of certain areas in life, and do not start off completely blank as many believe.

There are arguments for and against this concept, but the evidence does seem to be stacking up to suggest what we are talking about here does exist in some form. And if it does, think of the possibilities if we could learn more about this. The ability to recall anything from your own genetic line or even your entire species at any given moment. It is certainly worth a thought, isn’t it?