Reference: "The Brain Wave Diary" (12/25/01)

A matter of reincarnation

What are we? - Really!

"Oh! doesn't s/he look just like so and so." (A reference to a relative or relatives).

"Look, I see Grandma's eyes, uncle Bo's nose, great aunt Chloe's chin." This is a familiar conversation around most families when discussing the latest addition. Many times it can be clearly seen that physical attributes are passed along the chain of life, from kin to kin, legacy attributes of the genome.

Sometimes I have wondered what else might be passed along besides physical attributes.

Along my way I have met many, and many have talked about "memories".

Memories seem to come in two flavours, re-callable memories experienced directly and memories which seem to have origin outside of our direct experience. Often people will associate the indirect memories with passed lives, lives lived within a cycle or process of continuous "reincarnation". The feeling of being here before appears quite prevalent for many. While I can relate exactly to these strong feelings of being here before, as various manifestations of self down through the ages, I have also wondered why.

It is not that I doubt the phenomena of reincarnation but there has always been a nagging issue within me that could never quite accept the literal "reincarnation" assumption. I can see clearly why a person would associate their strong feelings of "past" life with being here before but... perhaps there is another source. It is always good to explore these supernatural phenomena and so this is an alternate thought on the topic.

Scientifically, it is well established the parents of a baby pass along genetic material that when combined make up the physical attributes of the baby, but what if... more than physical components are passed along. What if, "memories" and other non-physical elements are also passed along?

Memories are chemically stored "bits" of information that are not much different than other "bits" of genetic coding. Even scientifically it has been shown through experiment, memory can indeed be passed along.

In one experiment using the common flatworm, a British scientist demonstrated that a trained "response" to slight electrical shock current in combination with a flash of light was indeed passed along to the next generation, whereby the new generation "reacted" to light flashes by squirming as though reacting to a mild electrical shock their predecessors experienced along with their light flashes. Other flatworms used as non participative control subjects did not react to the flashes of light.

Certainly the indication from this experiment seems to show "memory" of being "shocked" was passed along through genetic transfer.

What are the millions of "blank" DNA strand cells scientists are struggling to associate physical characteristics to as they unravel the human genome? Perhaps these copious blank spots do not associate with physical characteristics at all. Perhaps they associate with the other two thirds of our composition, mind and spirit. I know science deals only with one third of our "absolute" manifestation, the physical. Perhaps soon science will need to explore the other aspects before they can be triumphant in cataloguing what we "really" are.

No, I am not trying to cast doubt on the theory of reincarnation, I am merely looking to keep open all possibility, it seems one of my inherited memories is to do this.

My question to you is, "What else may be passed along the chain of life besides physical attributes?"

As Albert Einstein once observed, "To understand everything, look deep into nature."

"Whatever you pursue gains credibility... even undeserving things."