I’ve touched on Cell Memory Theory and Organ Memory before in addressing the movie Last Christmas with Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding.
For the record, Cell Memory Theory is considered pseudoscience at the time of writing, and I’m not sure where I fall on believing it or disbelieving it. I find it to be fascinating, and I find the possibility of memory being held in places besides the brain possible, but I’m not certain how much, or how it transfers – if it could transfer.
To be fair, I’m not certain that if a brain was transferred to another body, it would work out to hold the person’s memories perfectly, either, since now it’s interacting with new organs and a new body. I do think that a whole memory, requires the whole body, though I have no scientific reason to back this up, so take these thoughts with a grain of salt as someone who is uneducated. That’s also not to say that your identity would be less with a brain transplant…just different.
The same way you are not less with a heart transplant, aging, or anything else. You’re just different.
My friend’s wife underwent a heart transplant in March. So far, so good, she’s survived and is still in recovery, working with her immune system so it doesn’t destroy the new heart. I know my friend’s been struggling with this, because no matter what, a heart transplant puts her life on a shorter timeline in general – though needing one and not getting it, would have also kept her time short. It’s a struggle for him to recognize that his time with the love of his life has gotten shorter than he anticipated it being.
That’s not to say she won’t surpass the odds and live much longer, and we’re all hoping for that.
One of the curiosities in this, is the curiosity of whether or not she will change any due to the “memories” the new heart might have. It’s something I’ll try to question, bit by bit, as things move forward.
It’s one of those thoughts I humor, a whether or not I could cheat death, at least for a little while longer, if one of my organs is put in someone else. Would “I” be aware of it? Would it be like “two people” in one body, or would it be more like one person with a book’s worth of knowledge suddenly shoved into their head all at once? Something known, but not something I am an active part of any longer?
Like Near Death Experiences, the experiences of those with transplants are subjective, and hard to be certain how “real” they are, and how much they did or didn’t know about the person they received an organ from prior to the changes. In my case, I know if I received an organ from someone, I’d want to know about them immediately. I’d want to connect with the family and loved ones they left behind, to honor them, in some way. I imagine I would rather consciously try to take on something of who they were, since a part of them was living inside me.
I’d rather hope if someone got a piece of me, they’d at least decorate with daffodils more. Or drink some lattes. Maybe watch some Star Wars, and put on some good candles. Definitely love cats more, give them some extra pats for me, since I can’t, anymore.
My mom is afraid of getting any transplants because of this “organ memory”. She doesn’t want to suddenly be someone else, or change. The movie Last Christmas helped her a little, since it was a good thing, but she worries about getting the heart of someone bad. Not that she’s in any need of it now, thankfully.
So I imagine it goes both ways, being worried of getting memories and being worried of passing memories on to someone.
Personally, I’d be okay either way. That kind of thought also helps to calm me, to know I could help someone live – with or without them “remembering” parts of my life.
