In today's Washington Post there is a potentially game changing article that could have far reaching implications for afterlife explorers.

In brief, it discusses a study that demonstrates that mice may pass traces of fear to its offspring.  Scientists induced fear to adult mice by giving them an electrical shock after exposing them to the fragrance of cherry blossoms. It turned out that after breeding the mice, their offspring reacted with fear and anxiety when exposed to the same fragrance.

So.....what if it's possible (no proof yet) that human DNA may transmit memories of things that happened to our own ancestors?  And if that's true, it just might explain why some people are born with certain talents or certain fears that are otherwise unexplained.  A so-called irrational fear of water might be the result of a near-drowning of an ancestor, especially (I'm guessing here) if the event was traumatic enough to imprint the trauma on his/her DNA and then was passed down to subsequent generations.

Now as to afterlife issues.  One thing hits me right off the bat, the deja vu effect.  Maybe the feeling that comes over some people that the first time they are in a town, they just "know" they have been there before and are able to find their way around with no help or maps.

So then they conclude they were in that town in a previous life and therefore reincarnation must be true.

Maybe, maybe not.  A genetic memory perhaps?  So much we don't know about our brains and how they work.

I'm sure others will identify other things that we currently ascribe to the afterlife that might possibly be the result of other as of yet unknown DNA aspects.

Please take some time and go to www.washingtonpost.com and bring up that article.  Would really be interested in your reactions.

r

That's interesting. I know a little bit about molecular biology and know that gene activity is regulated by environmental factors.

However, I wasn't aware of the possibility of psychological traits being passed over in the way this research found.

What happens when a child has a parent who has a lof of fears? Can strengths also be passed over?

Rergarding experiences of Deja Vu, my experiences have related to situations that related to my life situation at the time of such an experience, and not a situation that had nothing to do with my life.

I saw that article too, and found that the information didn't really surprise me in any way. If it does apply to humans I imagine just about all of us are born traumatized in some way...no one really gets through a life without a bit of trouble of some sort. And, it does seem that strengths would also be passed to offspring. I find it funny that, despite not being raised by my birth mother, I ended up living a very similar life to her, except that I have lived a life with a bit more personal independence as an outcome. Just my luck to be born in a time of looser social structures.

When I look at my dog, having raised her from 9 weeks, I see that it took quite some time for her to overcome her fear of stairs. Once she overcame that fear she hasn't had it again.

Personally speaking, I find that I have less fear as I age. Given enough time and experience, I think most of us have the intelligence to eventually see through what we fear. Having the confidence to bravely be ourselves is an asset which often comes with time.

It would make sense that some traits would be passed genetically in that way. After all, an animal which becomes separated from parents or its social group would benefit from that, I suppose.

But, we as humans are not actually mice. We benefit (or do not) from very very long periods of socialization by our tribes. We hardly need genetics to be seriously affected by the fears of our ancestors and elders.

Even so, fears passed down genetically can't be the end all be all because, if they were, there would not be much innovation would there? Perhaps a little of that genetically based fear would be helpful to keep social structures intact, but it can't rule the roost forever.

Genetic memory vs. past life....an interesting question.

That's an interesting article. I haven't found all the details of the study on the Nature Neuroscience website though. 

Rather than inclinations commencing as chance genetic mutations during gestation and then advantaging survival, which has been a long held social opinion and not very mathematically sound, it seems to make better sense for such inclinations to commence as a practice during a life span and then be genetically encoded and passed on to the offspring.

It is only an inherited trigger for a hormonal dump in mice though, which is a long way from an inherited behaviour trait in freewilled humans who can override our hormonal insurgences.   

On a related note, we have an old folk saying here in Australia about someone who talks a lot, we say, "His mother was frightened by a parrot."   he he perhaps some old timers knew about that effect before the nerds thought to study it.

crossbow
   

I agree, this is an interesting field of study.  I'm fairly convinced that our emotions evolved and are essentially written in our biological structure, our DNA.  Within consciousness and its evolution I've always thought that most anything is possible, so this sounds like consciousness exploring all possibilities.  I especially found this interesting:

Quote:

Male rats whose fathers were exposed to cocaine chose to ingest less of the drug than those rats whose fathers never took cocaine. Pierce says he believes this is an adaptive effect — because cocaine is a toxin, the fathers passed down information to their pups that would help them survive and avoid the substance.

Thiis study, of course, nicely fits Sheldrake's research that I report in my evolution thread.