Devils' Advocate
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A complete aside – I have heard people who have undergone transplants (notably the heart) insisting they've inherited some of the characteristics of the donor.
If we accept that the matter itself is energy, then might not an organ retain, in some way, the persona, an energy form or pattern, of the donor? Thomas.
An interesting supposition. Quick clarification, matter is not energy, matter is another form of energy. It is an important difference.
Still the question remains. Can matter retain any residual memory of its current state. As in the organ transplant situation you posited.
The only hard answer is that we really don't have any idea whether it does or not. People have, as you suggest, insisted they have inherited some of the characteristics of the donor. The mind, however, is a bizarre place. One that with all our advances in science we still know relatively little about how it operates. A great deal of what we perceive has no basis in actuality.
In attempting to answer the question, my first query would be has anyone ever done a study where the recipient never the knew (knew them before they died obviously!), or knew of, the donor. If they were to independently start having characteristics of the donor, that would be quite a fascinating find. But again I do not know if any such study has been made.
If the recipient has some knowledge of the donor, it would be hard to prove they were not subconsciously adopting these new traits. Consciously believing they were coming from the new heart, though in actuality not the case.
Medically we knew very much more about the heart as an organ than we do the brain. The heart is a circulation engine. Some people believe there is more to the heart than that. I know of no verifiable evidence to suggest that such an idea is anything more than wishful speculation.
If we accept that the matter itself is energy, then might not an organ retain, in some way, the persona, an energy form or pattern, of the donor? Thomas.
An interesting supposition. Quick clarification, matter is not energy, matter is another form of energy. It is an important difference.
Still the question remains. Can matter retain any residual memory of its current state. As in the organ transplant situation you posited.
The only hard answer is that we really don't have any idea whether it does or not. People have, as you suggest, insisted they have inherited some of the characteristics of the donor. The mind, however, is a bizarre place. One that with all our advances in science we still know relatively little about how it operates. A great deal of what we perceive has no basis in actuality.
In attempting to answer the question, my first query would be has anyone ever done a study where the recipient never the knew (knew them before they died obviously!), or knew of, the donor. If they were to independently start having characteristics of the donor, that would be quite a fascinating find. But again I do not know if any such study has been made.
If the recipient has some knowledge of the donor, it would be hard to prove they were not subconsciously adopting these new traits. Consciously believing they were coming from the new heart, though in actuality not the case.
Medically we knew very much more about the heart as an organ than we do the brain. The heart is a circulation engine. Some people believe there is more to the heart than that. I know of no verifiable evidence to suggest that such an idea is anything more than wishful speculation.
