Memories are not only in the brain, learning/memory is a fundamental property of all cells
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While the findings of the study are probably going to shock most of my readers, the idea that a human’s entire orchestra of cells are the source of our self/memories/knowledge, with the actual brain being more akin to a conductor, is not new and has been proposed centuries ago. Years ago, I did a few posts about research corroborating this idea and it has only been gaining traction ever since, much to the chagrin of medicine and especially neurologists.
http://www.eneuro.org/content/early/2018/05/14/ENEURO.0038-18.2018
RNA injected from one sea slug into another may transfer memories
https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer
One reason the idea of the “organism as the brain” is so maligned in medical circles is that is calls into serious question the idea that “mental” or “neurological” conditions are localized strictly to the brain and as such can only be treated by a brain-specific approach. The fact that 99% of all clinical trials for Alzheimer’s have failed so far and treatment of other conditions such as Parkinson, Huntington Disease, ALS, etc as well as depression, bipolar disorder, mania, psychosis/schizophrenia, etc is not in any better shape, strongly supports the idea that the “self” and its maladies is not localized to the brain so all brain-specific approaches are probably doomed. That means hundreds of billions of money spent on medical research is not only wasted currently, but will probably continue to be wasted since medicine has doubled-down on its “compartmentalized” approach to treating any specific disease. In addition, the idea of the entire organism being the “brain” combined with the fact that memories can be transferred chemically across not only individuals, but also species (see above articles) creates serious problems for the current nihilistic dogma on which medicine is based. Not only are “we” not localized to our brains, but “we” are not prisoners of our bodies either. Namely, “we” are being spread around and incorporated into other organisms (and possibly “non-living” matter as well) continuously, and long after the body with which we are identified is gone. There is already plenty of evidence for these claims, even from mammals/humans. The phenomena of telegony and microchimerism can be found in any species one cares to look at.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegony_(inheritance)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microchimerism
What does all this mean in practical terms. Well, if even memories and learning are not specific to the brain and neither are “brain” diseases, then all other diseases should probably not be considered organ/tissue specific either. Ray himself said this repeatedly and in one of his articles he concluded with something along the following lines: “In the absence of serious evidence to the contrary, all diseases should be considered systemic in nature”. I would extend this further and would say that not only diseases should be considered systemic, but that the phenomena of “self”, memory, consciousness, etc extend outside the body and what we consider “us” constantly imprints itself on reality outside of us while also accepting imprints from other entities as well. As hard it is to believe, this idea is already the subject of serious research, with the most notable proponent being Rupert Sheldrake from Cambridge University. This idea is more commonly known as morphogenetic fields and morphic resonanse. So, once again we have evidence that the current picture of the organism, on which the entire medical science and industry are built is not just woefully inadequate, but just plain wrong and thus iatrogenic.
https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-53922-x
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-memories-brain-human-cell.html
“…It’s common knowledge that our brains—and, specifically, our brain cells—store memories. But a team of scientists has discovered that cells from other parts of the body also perform a memory function, opening new pathways for understanding how memory works and creating the potential to enhance learning and to treat memory-related afflictions. Learning and memory are generally associated with brains and brain cells alone, but our study shows that other cells in the body can learn and form memories, too,” explains New York University’s Nikolay V. Kukushkin, the lead author of the study, which appears in the journal Nature Communications. The research sought to better understand if non-brain cells help with memory by borrowing from a long-established neurological property—the massed-spaced effect—which shows that we tend to retain information better when studied in spaced intervals rather than in a single, intensive session—better known as cramming for a test. In the research, the scientists replicated learning over time by studying two types of non-brain human cells in a laboratory (one from nerve tissue and one from kidney tissue) and exposing them to different patterns of chemical signals—just like brain cells are exposed to patterns of neurotransmitters when we learn new information. In response, the non-brain cells turned on a “memory gene”—the same gene that brain cells turn on when they detect a pattern in the information and restructure their connections in order to form memories. To monitor the memory and learning process, the scientists engineered these non-brain cells to make a glowing protein, which indicated when the memory gene was on and when it was off. The results showed that these cells could determine when the chemical pulses, which imitated bursts of neurotransmitter in the brain, were repeated rather than simply prolonged—just as neurons in our brain can register when we learn with breaks rather than cramming all the material in one sitting. Specifically, when the pulses were delivered in spaced-out intervals, they turned on the “memory gene” more strongly, and for a longer time, than when the same treatment was delivered all at once. “This reflects the massed-space effect in action,” says Kukushkin, a clinical associate professor of life science at NYU Liberal Studies and a research fellow at NYU’s Center for Neural Science. “It shows that the ability to learn from spaced repetition isn’t unique to brain cells, but, in fact, might be a fundamental property of all cells.”
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@haidut have you read Merlin Sheldrakes book Entangled Life? He’s Rupert’s son. The book is, about how fungi make our worlds, change our MINDS, (my emphases) and shape our future.
I think mycelium might have a lot more power in shaping what we call thoughts than most people know.
Peace
