Genetic (ancestral) memory

[Trinity]

I don't know what triggered these thoughts again, but years ago I had a discussion with my ex about reincarnation and he told me about this theory he had read about.
There is lots of info on the net, but here's a simple link for starters http://www.cyjack.com/cognition/Genetic%20Memory.pdf

What brought this up then was the fact that my ex had had a great yearning to be a shepherd and we almost moved to Northumberland for him to train. Weeks later, he met his father again for the first time in 20 years and told him of his desire to work with sheep and his dad told him that his great grandfather had been a shepherd all his adult life. It blew him away!

I often wonder why we have certain affinities with or yearnings for places or periods in time.

I've had these sporadically throughout my life but they never stay with me. (Norway was one!)

[AshtonBlack]

Certainly possible, but I wouldn't discount confirmation bias.
But it's a bit Larmackian.

[Clinton Huxley]

I have this inexplicable yearning for the 19th Century. I could never explain it. Then I did some research, determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and I discovered that I had a number of ancestors who had lived there.

[charlou]

Derail has been moved to a new thread, here: http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2764

[MedGen]

A genetic memory would make its self apparent very quickly by its mode of inheritance and prevalance within a population of organisms. Also it would be observable in more than a few isolated individuals as an established mechanism.

There is a type of cellular memory that involves the chemical modification of cytosines (by methylation) and histone proteins (methylation and acetylation). This has a direct impact on how particular genes and regions of a genome are expressed. There may be a limited sporadic inheritance to these modifications in germ cells. Normally all of these modifications are "reset", but this is an imperfect process and as such these modifications are sometimes transmitted to the offspring where they exert their relevant effects in the guise of chromatin (the complex of protein and DNA that makes up your chromosomes) remodelling and subsequent gene expression regulation.

Hope that sheds a little light on the matter.

[Animavore]

Someone's being playing Assassin's Creed too much me thinks.