The underestimated and largely misunderstood, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, through three of his salient publications Recherches sur l’organisation des corps vivants, 1802; Philosophie Zoologique, 1809., 1809; and Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres, (seven volumes, 1815–22), would establish the foundation of epigenetics (organic evolution). This predated Charles Darwin, and has only recently been recognized as the more important evolutionary mechanism (see Lamarck’s Revenge by Dr. Peter Ward, 2018), in addition to the Darwinian theory of random mutation, natural selection and the gradual change of organisms over time. In epigenetics, it has been shown that evolutionary changes can occur within one’s life, and interestingly, some are heritable (i.e., passed on to the next generation).

In research of generations of children born from survivors of the Hongerwinter, which is typically referred to as the Dutch Winter, when the Nazis cut off all supplies during the brutal Winter of 1944-45 to 4.5 million people, killing tens of thousands to starvation or worse; the generational aftermath was both interesting and alarming. In studies of the offspring of the Hongerwinter survivors, there was found an alarming increased incidence of many health disorders including diabetes, schizophrenia, eating disorders, with generally increased morbidity and mortality. Thus, it is indicated that the mechanism of heritable epigenetics negatively changed the genes of the Hongerwinter survivors, which were then passed on to subsequent generations.

In a revealing study published in Nature in 2013, Dr. Dias and Dr. Ressler trained mice to be afraid of an otherwise innocuous smell, astonishingly, this fear was passed on to the next three generations of mice. While still controversial, it seems to indicate behaviors can be inherited.  Could memories be likewise passed on? Could this explain people experiencing “past lives”, perhaps these are visionary memories from ancestors passed down epigenetically. Or is the “behavior” an encoded memory that is passed on? Might this explain offspring who seem to pursue or avoid activities of their parents?

What of consciousness. Is this entirely a biological phenomenon? Can consciousness be carried over in some epigenetic method?

In a recent study conducted at Yale University led by Dr. Nenad Sustan, with the results published in Nature, they were able to re-establish brain activity in a decapitated pig’s head after 4 hours of its death. They used a newly developed technique coined perfusion, which sends a synthetic blood to the brain and stimulates cell activity. To prevent consciousness occurring they included a blocker to prevent neuronal activity. There have been many cases of humans being successfully resuscitated after “death” many hours later. Thus, it would seem feasible for someone who has died of heart failure, or some other organ failure, to be treated with perfusion, to preserve the brain, while organizing a replacement to the failed organ. Regardless, the brain seems to live on for many hours, perhaps days during its dying phase.

It has been established with known research demonstrating control of a two-dimensional computer mouse via brain waves, non-invasively and without any muscle control. Given the brain seems to live on for hours after “death”, would it be possible to continue communicating via this interface? Is it possible for the mechanism of epigenetics to provide a pathway to human-machine interfacing, thus a sort of immortality?

In my prior post “Wardenclyffe”, I posed, among others, these two questions:

1. It is clear from the process of epigenetics that we can alter our genetic expressions in our lifetime, and also pass this on heritably.  This begs the question of what we might to do positively (subjective!) to alter ourselves for our future generations.
2. Why are new species massively created after extinction events? Similar to forest fires, with subsequent new growth, in all known extinction events on earth, there followed an abundance of new species formation. What is this mechanism, and importantly, after the next such event, what new, presumably move evolved species, will be?

Clearly epigenetics is involved in both answers. If we were to unlock the complete answer to question 1, and this continued generationally, it stands to reason we would achieve untold quality longevity as a species. Yet, we seem doomed to not understand our small, but important role for subsequent generations, and even if we were, it is difficult to imagine such selflessness in action.

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