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Question:You can inherit looks and traits but can you inherit memories giving you a feeling of deja-vu.


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You can inherit looks and traits but can you inherit memories giving you a feeling of deja-vu.

Sometimes you feel you have a fascination with a certain place or people and you don't know where this comes from and nothing in your family that you know of can explain this. You do wonder if there is something genetic that makes you feel this way apart from the other explanations that are always proposed such as past lives. Genetic makeup is a complicated affair. For instance the womb environment of your Grandma or Great Grandma could have a bearing on your physical makeup, mental and emotional and personality traits. Maybe it goes even deeper than this in ways we currently cannot explain by science.

Interesting question :)

Very interesting :)
My first cousin once removed has always had an interest in pottery and set himself up many years back in a small venture: has his own kiln. I have recently found out that very distant ancestors had a pottery business of some sort.. Report It

Zene Purrs ????'s Avatar Zene Purrs ????
Yes there must be something to it - inheritence and memories/interests, etc..
Best wishes.. Report It

Zene Purrs ????'s Avatar Zene Purrs ????
I only just found this out after you asked the question or I would have comented on it before. Thanks for b.a.....interesting story re Cornwall also :) Report It


Other Answers (23)




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  • It is possible--I never dismiss anything...

    NO, i dont think that is possible

    no...we have only a rough idea of how they lived, passed on down the line.....so we would never know what was in their heads at the time...so couldn't share their thought patterns. shame - it would be great!!

    Anything is possible. Who knows maybe you have been reincarnated. You might really be one of your ancestors who has come back to life.

    Nope - that would be past lives.

    You can "inherit" a race memory passed on from parent to child without any real idea of its origin and without being taught, but just by picking up things from a very early age.
    I wish you could pass on languages via DNA - I have French ancestors back in the 1600's and it would have been a blessing at school.

    dont talk wet!

    Interesting thought. That would explain stories of people who say they've had past lives and can remember details that turn out to be correct.

    No, it is physically impossible. For a start each brain cell and pathway necessary for memory is unique and highly complex, they could not be transferred and preserved in an infants mind. Then there would be the problem of learning, as you grow and learn new pathways are created and old degraded this is how the brain looks after itself. Finally if it were possible then only memories could be passed from the mother as you have no physical contact with the father, no chance for exchange during pre-birth growth. To top it off you would only have those pre-dating your own birth.

    It depends on how you define memories - our instincts are kind of like memories, passed on to us by long gone ancestors, some going so far back that they are not even human.

    I believe you can....they are called genetic memories. I honestly believe that this type of memory is what is responsible for deja vu, as well as past life regression. It is more logical to me than any other theory I have come into contact with. It also explains an infants instinctual fear of things like fire, animals, etc. I have heard it called racial memory also, but I'm not sure if it is the same, or different from genetic memory.

    that's a very good question which i feel could be possible

    no - only bad genes and debts

    dont think so...

    Memories are a personal record of something YOU have actually experienced. So no, you can't inherit those.
    What you can gain, through research, is an understanding of many things that your family has done. Finding pictures of family members gives a feel for what their lives were like. Historical events can shape the personalities of your ancestors.. if you learn a grandfather survived an attack by Indians, it helps explain why he might have been tough and independent. Or if someone was orphaned, and had to fend for themselves at age 14, it could leave them distant, instead of affectionate.
    I have seen some very strong things passed down through my own family. Are they actual memories? No, they are not.

    Interesting concept tho.

    no.

    I don't believe so. I feel that the feeling of deja-vu is a way of your mind telling you that you know what to do with this situation so that you can make the right choice.

    I have heard stories about people claiming to have done this, but then again People have said they have seen the Loch Ness Monster, so what can you say?

    No. Our memories belong only to ourselves.

    Yeah its possible. Especially when they go into detail about their life's experiences and show you pictures. Than there memories will be part of you. I do however believe in past life memories. I have them a lot.

    I think it is possible, it's called folk memory, a term which is also applied to the oral tradition of tale telling

    I think that it is possible.
    I've had that feeling of deja-vu many times.