novel ideas

About 7am, I got a surprise call. One of my close friends had switched off her alarm and was thinking of getting up for the day when she had a novel idea. It was so stunning in its simplicity, she wondered “has anyone else thought of this”?  Of course, the definition of “novel” is “original or striking, especially in conception or style”. So these don’t happen everyday and she said she felt she just had to share it!

Hanging on the edge of your seats yet? Can’t wait to hear it? Ok, I will tell. I will repeat exactly what she told me:

I just had a staggering thought about genetic memory. What if –( long pause)–  people who think they have been or talk about being reincarnated in past lives, aren’t actually recalling their past lives, but they have somehow managed to tap into the genetic memory and these are actually past lives of their relatives through time that they are remembering. Wouldn’t that be interesting to be able to track and figure out?

Well, have I ever heard of this? Have I ever thought of this possibility? No and no. I have embraced the concept of “genetic memory or DNA memory or collective unconscious”.

Carl Jung used the term “collective unconscious” to define his even broader concept of inherited traits, intuitions and collective wisdom of the past.

Genetic memory, sometimes called ancestral memory, is, in contrast, the genetic transmission of sophisticated knowledge itself, or at least the genetic transmission of the templates or ‘rules’ of such knowledge. One might refer to these as the musical chip, artistic chip, calendar-calculating chip or mathematical chip, for example.

What we become then, it is commonly believed, is an accumulation of continuous learning and life experiences that are added one by one to memory. Whether called ancestral, genetic or racial memory, or intuitions, or congential gifts, the concept of a genetic transmission of sophisticated knowledge, well beyond ‘instincts’ is necessary to explain how prodigious savants, for example, can know things they never learned.

……genetic memory is inherited knowledge.  Genetic memory—factory installed software—….exists in all of us. It is a huge reservoir of generally dormant knowledge and talent, distributed in all of us along the lines of the usual bell-shaped curve. Darold Treffert, MD

That reminds me of a conversation I had with the single “rocket scientist” that I know. He had a novel idea that he shared. As a man who reveled in his lack of spirituality, he took a scientific approach to the question of abortion. In his reasoned view, the two sides could come to agreement quickly if they could make the same determinations of life that they make of death. He asked, “why can’t we use brain activity to determine the point of life, like we use brain activity to determine the point of death”? He proposed that there would be no life and death questions, if everyone could come to agreement and a point of satisfaction on the definitions of life and death. Then, the measurement tool for both, brain activity, would either be present or absent. The degree would not matter, it would only matter if it was present for a baby in utero or absent for a seriously ill person at the end of their life. We just haven’t gotten the instrument or capability to measure the brain activity of a fetus yet. That was the simple answer to the issue, in his mind.

Stunning. I sat completely still and contemplated that question. Why indeed? Then, the minute you have a novel idea or hear one, you wonder…has anyone already thought of this? Have you ever heard of this concept? What do you think?Then, I wondered, why haven’t they thought of this? If we can do surgery in utero and see details like their little faces, surely we could hook up some electrodes and detect some brain waves?

That’s the bottom line on both of these. They do give you pause to think. Novel ideas provoke thoughtful contemplation. I can’t say that I am a believer for reincarnation or abortion, but I am a big fan of the human body and all that we cannot see or understand. In both cases, I was in the confidence of each person on a personal level. It is very difficult to present a “novel idea” to a larger group until its been tested on your inner circle. Consider me testing it on you, now. What do you think? If I get responses, I will add the discussion in a post-note. Thanks for thinking with me!!

It reminds me of this novel idea.

Mixing recipes with folklore, legend and local facts, sketches in pen and ink, all for a good cause.

Novel ideas don’t happen to everyone or every day. I am thankful for all of these!!!