His Heart Remembered

[jackofallgeeks]

So, recently there was a horror/suspense movie in theatres called "The Eye," which apparently had as
it's premise a combination of cellular memory and psychic phenomenon. In
the movie, a girl who has an eye transplant (I didn't know that sort of
thing happened) starts to see how people will die shortly before they do,
and presumably learns that the eye's donor had similar powers. I never saw
the movie, but it looked interesting and Cellular Memory is an
actual medical phenomenon. People have taken up smoking habits, speech
mannerisms, and behavioral quirks of their donors after recieving
transplants. Fascinating.

This morning one of the first articles I found was on a guy who killed
himself the same
way his donor did. Now the article doesn't get too specific, basically
the guy shot himself and if the only similarity in their suicides is "death
by bullet wound," that's a pretty tenuous link. Still, it gets weirder when
they say that this guy had previously married his donor's widow. In
an interview with the guy in 2006 (I think), he said that when he met her
(after corresponding with his donor's family to offer his thanks) it was
like he'd known her for years. The point is, he kind of did; his heart
remembered her. And, apparently, it also remembered whatever demons plagued
it's original owner, and the method and motivation that owner had for
silencing those demons.

Comments

[dikaiosunh.livejournal.com]

I'm not qualified to pronounce on the phenomenon one way or the other (though I'll admit to being skeptical), but the Wiki article you link to doesn't actually establish that cellular memory is an "actual medical phenomenon" - it cites only to the non-peer-reviewed Journal of Near-Death Studies.

The idea that other cells of the body besides the brain carry information is fairly persuasive (e.g., your endocrine system probably has almost as much to do with your personality as your brain does), but that's different from "remembering" things like who you were in love with because you've had one organ replaced.

In fact, you tell a pretty plausible story about the guy who married his donor's widow - they met after corresponding about the transplant. If you'd told me they met at random and then fell in love, that'd be a bit more mysterious. But sublimating feelings of gratitude at having one's life saved into affection for someone connected to your savior doesn't strike me as needing cellular memory to flesh out the story.

Again, none of this is evidence *against* it. I just don't see much evidence *for* it in any of this.

[starlight1184.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen the movie "Return to Me"? It follows a similar concept. It's a beautiful movie. You'd like it.

[mordainlove.livejournal.com]

i totally second this comment. return to me is one of my favourite mushy romantic movies. it's lovely. andrew, you should def. check it out. :)

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it, but I've heard of it. I'll check it out.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Let me amend my previous comment: I think I have seen "Return to Me" before, and I think I saw it with you.

I just rented it from Netflix. It was a cute movie.