Do Transplant Recipients Get Memories Along with Their New Organs?

Posted by Ben:

I love a good metaphysical/spiritual/new age story, especially one that is backed up by some compelling evidence. When I stumbled across the story of Paul Pearsall, a neuropsychologist who studies the phenomenon of transplant recipients being overcome with new memories and personalities, I was instantly hooked.

 

According to Pearsall and his book, The Heart’s Code, transplant patients can in fact take on the personalities, memories and even food preferences and tastes of the donors. It sounds incredible, but Pearsall has documented several instances that make you wonder what other explanation could there possibly be.
 

Learning New Lingo

In one case covered in Pearsall’s book, a young man received a new heart from an older man named David who had died as a result of a car accident. Years later, Pearsall was conducting his neuropsychological study and asked David’s wife, Glenda, if she would meet the young Spanish-speaking man who had received her husband’s heart. She agreed.
 

Upon meeting the young man, Glenda was obviously overcome with emotion. It had been several years since she had lost her beloved husband, and this meeting was an opportunity to reconnect in a way. Little did she know how much of a connection she would make.
 

As she visited with the young man and his mother, who was also present during the meeting, Glenda asked if she could lay her hand over his heart—her husband’s heart. As she did so, she whispered, “I love you, David. Everything’s copacetic.”
 

Upon hearing that word copacetic, the young man’s mother said in amazement, “My son uses that word now. He never said it before his heart transplant. I don’t know that word; it doesn’t exist in Spanish. But it was the first thing he said after the operation.”
 

Murder Victim Lives On

It’s rare that a murder victim can play an active role in the investigation of her own murder, considering it would have to be done from beyond the grave. It is well-documented that law enforcement does employ psychics from time to time to help during investigations of otherwise cold cases. However , this case does not involve psychics.
 

An eight-year-old girl received a life-saving heart transplant after the murder of a 10-year-old girl. The surgery went smoothly, but the new life the eight-year-old had been granted was fraught with nightmares... nightmares filled with images of the crime scene. The donor recipient was so tormented by her dreams that she ended up under the care of a psychiatrist.
 

Week after week, the girl detailed her nightmares to the psychiatrist, explaining details of the murder that no one but the victim could have known. After several sessions, the psychiatrist, convinced that there was more to these visions than a child’s imagination, decided to notify the police. With the girl’s help, the police were able to track down and convict the murderer based on evidence she provided, including the time of the murder, the murder weapon, the place, the clothes he wore and what was said. Everything the transplant recipient said proved to be correct.
 

Strange New Craving

After waking up from her heart transplant procedure, a three-year-old Arab girl immediately asked for a type of Jewish candy. There is no way she could have known about this particular type of treat, yet it was the first thing out of her mouth after the anesthesia wore off. The only remotely plausible explanation was the origin of her new heart, which came from an eight-year-old Jewish boy who had died in a car crash.
 

What Do You Think?

What do you make of these stories? Are they completely coincidental, or is there something to them? Pearsall believes that memories can be carried by each cell in our body, especially critical ones like heart cells. What other explanation could there be? It’s a fascinating question.
 

Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/do-our-organs-have-memories.html

 

Posted by Ben