The Positive Side of Genetic Memory

Genetic Memory defined (source: wikipedia): ” In psychology, genetic memory is a memory present at birth that exists in the absence of sensory experience, and is incorporated into the genome over long spans of time. It is based on the idea that common experiences of a species become incorporated into its genetic code, not by a Lamarckian process that encodes specific memories but by a much vaguer tendency to encode a readiness to respond in certain ways to certain stimuli.

“Neuroscientific research on mice suggests that some experiences can influence subsequent generations. Mice trained to fear a specific smell passed on their trained aversion to their descendants, which were then extremely sensitive and fearful of the same smell, even though they had never encountered it, nor been trained to fear it.

“Changes in brain structure were also found. The researchers concluded that “[t]he experiences of a parent, even before conceiving, markedly influence both structure and function in the nervous system of subsequent generations”.^[4]

“Scientists speculate that similar genetic mechanisms could be linked with phobias, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders, and other neuro-psychiatric disorders, in humans.”

 

Since genetic memory has been theorized as being responsible (or causative) for phobias, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorders and other neuro-psychiatric disorders, I think it’s only fair to say that genetic memory may also predispose related individuals to becoming Creatives.

 

Case in point: My mother, Dorothea,  was told repeatedly as a child that one of her maternal ancestors was related to the Brothers Grimm. I did some research along those lines and discovered that my grandmother came from the same town at the Brothers Grimm (Kassel, Germany) and that their mother’s name was Dorothea. Mom was named after an ancestral matriarch. The same Dorothea?  Although Dorothea is a common name in Germany, the likelihood of there being both an oral history of descent from the same German town makes me feel pretty darned certain that I’m a direct descendant of the the Grimm family.

 

I wanted to be a writer from the first moment “storyteller” was introduced into my conscious awareness. As soon as I learned to string words together into sentences, I started writing stories, reports and essays. It was an addiction, an obsession, my drug of choice.

 

Has the writing gene (genetic memory) been passed down to me?

 

Mom said, “Because I could never draw a straight line with a ruler or be creative in any other way, I always took the story of being related to the Brothers Grimm with a grain of salt. Then you came along!”

 

From the moment Mom told me I could write my own Roy Rogers stories (she told me that because I was always hounding her to buy the next Roy Rogers comic book, and they didn’t publish them as often as I wanted to read them), I’ve been a writing fool.

 

But wait, there’s more!  

 

My grandniece Casey Hope McNiven is also a lover of words (books) and a writer. A GOOD writer. She was never a bad writer, even when she started out. Her imagination is superior. Her stories are riveting. They always have been.

 

And my second cousin (same lineage), Robert M. Brantner, is a writer. The author of Claus: The Untold Story of Kris Kringle,  he writes more along the lines of the Brothers Grimm than I do or than Casey does. And he’s GOOD, very very good.

 

All of this anecdotal evidence leads me to believe that genetic memories survive in the DNA of families and that they lie dormant (or untapped) until someone comes along who resonates to their genetic code in a way that causes them to discover (re-discover, actually) the love a good story and the desire to become a proficient storyteller.

 

Before I started writing non-fiction, I was a prodigious creator of fiction, usually based on characters I loved on TV: Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Roy Rogers, Stoney Burke, etc. I think it might be time for me to resurrect my penchant for fiction. I have two Dr. McCoy-centered manuscripts gathering dust in my archives. I’d have to retype them (I wrote them before I owned or knew how to use a computer), but they’re good. I just don’t know if they’re of the caliber Pocket Books would need to want to publish them. I would want them to be good enough for that: violating CBS’s copyright infringement by writing fan fiction using a  character conceived by Gene Roddenberry and perfected by DeForest Kelley (and more recently, Karl Urban) doesn’t appeal to me.

 

Or I could invent my own world.  The Brothers Grimm used their knowledge of the Black Forest and the henchmen and highwaymen who plundered them to create stories that were designed to keep kids from venturing into the woods.

 

One of my stories about McCoy takes place in the area I’m most familiar with: The Pacific NW, including Mt Rainier. In it, Mt Rainier erupts, McCoy is seriously injured, and he has to rely on an autistic girl he has developed a bond with to go for help. Wildlife rehab factors into the manuscript, too, since I’ve been rehabbing wildlife for most of my life.

 

The other of my Trek stories is a time travel story where McCoy and Uhura find themselves in the deep south during the Civil War era. McCoy poses as an itinerant country doctor with a  mute black “servant” to keep Uhura safe. They both know that if she opens her mouth, questions will be asked and the stuff will hit the fan. The trouble happens when Uhura falls in love with the passion of a slave who is urging his fellows to escape and flee to the north. Since she can’t beam them all up (in fact, beaming up is impossible in the story at this point), she falls in love with the Underground Railroad idea.

 

You have to remember. Uhura is from a future Africa that is thriving. Her history isn’t American history. She has never been an American; she has always been African. Her dignity is 100% intact.  Her family’s genetic memory stories course through her veins. She comes from African kings and princes. (I think the writers of Trek forgot that a time or two. Uhura is mighty, not mousy, intense not intimidated!)

 

Anyway… I think there’s a LOT to this genetic memory thesis. It certainly makes sense in my family. I wonder how many other descendants of the Brothers Grimm have re-discovered their passion for storytelling and gone on to write books? I bet there are others…

 

And who did the Brothers Grimm get their storytelling predisposition from?  I’ll bet it didn’t start with them. It was just the invention of the printing press that made storytelling something you can hold in your hands… Before the printing press, we had to store stories in our brains and pass them along orally.

 

It didn’t start with Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm!