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This is inspired in part by the screaming skulls post (fascinating by the way) - earlier this year a newspaper article in a leading newspaper ran an article describing patients who had taken on the personality traits of the donors... my question is what does this phenomenon tell us of the seat of the soul (traditionally the heart or the head)? I would welcome views on this...

That is a hard question.... I think the soul resides in every fiber of ones being.... That's why many people pick up personality traits of those who have had transplants..... I don't feel it is limited to the head or the heart..... But it is a good thing to make one think about with which they use the most to make decisions..... cause a Liver doesn't really decide whether or not to kill something or to go and make someone's day better... LOL ...

Thats kinda awkward. Taking the personality of the donor? I guess is could work in some good ways though. If your an ass before the change and completly laid back after, lol.

One of the subjects... a wicca and vegetarian received a kidney from a dead biker and became violent and broke her vegetarian pledge...

See, I dont think that was to do with the transplant. Maybie they werent that serious about the vegi, and maybie they did take the anger trait.

I honestly cannot say about taking on the soul from a transplanted body part but I just don’t feel it would happen. As far as the extreme reactions from people that have had transplants that could be explained by the fact that their body has gone thorough terrible trauma in having had to have a transplant in the first place. Add to that the mental anguish that probably was involved in coming to terms with it and possibly waiting for a donor to be found it could explain the few cases of odd behavior after transplant surgery.

the question is I suppose... to what does the soul attach?

Nicely put, Nightgame. Call me weird, I'd rather die than have a part of someone else's body in mine.

Does the soul have to be attached physically? Can it not simply know it belongs to it's owner until such time it knows to leave. A self awareness of sorts?

i believe this to be true, If u take over some ones hear t in a transplant YOu have the personalitly of that person or same if the brain u take the brain from a person u may develope the personalitly of that person also ,

It is possible to take on some of the personality traits of the donor. The soul is energy, I don't believ it is attached to the body, but connected. I believe that the head and heart are channels and focuses of that energy. Since they are connected and in contact with the other organs the energy flows through them. I believe that there would be residual energy left in said organs upon transplant. When this happens I believe one of two things happens.1) either the energy will influence the recipients energy until it runs out or 2) the recipient's energy will mould and adapt to it, leaving them with some traits of the donor. So, say my heart goes to someone else when I die. They are a passifist at heart, I am an aggressive person and a fighter at heart. So if they have my heart and it contains my energy, they may become more aggressive and even become obstinate. That may be temporary and they may even end up at an in-between state so that they are neither.

It's not just the energy..that might be left in the organ..BUT,the DNA as well.I mean the mans-or womans
organ still has the DNA built for that person,so in fact..
that some of that DNA has effected yours..and of course the other way around.What once coursed threw there veins..now goes threw the new owners.

I think that a person's energy stays with their organs. i dont think their soul does. i think the soul dies and moves on to somewhere else. but their energy is what fueled their organs and i feel like with transplants, you are getting a part of someone else.

that's pretty sweet. so are you saying, it's kinda like your personality is based on what kind of blood you have? lol, that could be a breakthrough discovery! hehe

It is something I can Understand... DNA includes our personality basis after all.

When the donor gives one their energy or blood they give themselves to that one. Therefore the donor lives within them.

While I agree that the donors DNA is still part of the transplanted organ, I do not think it would be enough to overwhelm your own bodies DNA, especially enough to cause you to behave differently. I still feel it is the shock both physical and mental that cause the changes in behavior.

I agree with night above me. i think that the dna and energy is left. but the person getting the transplant would not change because of the new organ. they might feel different. they might have side affects from such a serious surgery. but it wouldnt change how they think or act.

I think if this was an isolated case there would not be so much interest.

However, I have read about quite a few, where the recipiant of the organ feels compelled to find the family of the donor.

Not only to thank them but to ask questions to try and make sense of things being experienced.

I think it could be a case of the newly 'dead' trying to contact their loved ones to say they are okay.....using the organ as a link.

in my country there was a story in the newspaper about a woman who received the heart of other girl... this girl was about to have kids and died giving birth... well, to make a long story short, the woman who received the heart started having dreams about the girl and finally met the family... and now she adopted the babies ...

I think that we not only receive a piece of meat, an organ, we receive part of the other person's life... maybe it may sound weird, but life is in every part of us... each of our organs is a live... and if we receive them from others or if we give them to others, we are giving something alive... and maybe we can transfer to the other part of our life...

As I mentioned in a previous forum when my son donated 60% of his superliver to his stepdad, he started having my son's cravings. These were things that my husband never ate in a million years. Now he will say out of the blue, he is in the mood for cheeseburgers. There was always a bond between them. Not too many stepsons would do that but now they are closer. It's like the bond that twins have.

I know I posted already but it was mainly my observations from my hubby after his transplant. I asked him the question and he mentioned that he has tea before he goes to sleep which is something my son (the donor) always does. My hubby never drank tea, Pretty weird, He is a coffee drinker.

I have personally known several who have had transplants and have never observed this reaction. I personally think it is an urban myth

From what I have read transplant patients are only told the age and sex of the donor. If this is the case then I think it is unlikely that the recipient is experiencing sympathy reactions. I believe that live cells can hold memory because all cells pass though the body, including the brain where memories are said to be stored, through the blood stream and deposit in varies organs. I do think it is a rare phenomena.

Personally, I think that patients taking on the personality traits of the donors is a lot of made-up nonsense. It reminds me a lot of the urban legend of the blind woman who received new eyes from an organ donor, and began receiving visions of the men who murdered said organ donor.

I believe that the traits of one's personality are not defined by nor embedded into one's organs.

I find have a particular curiosity about this since one of my good friends' teenage son just received a kidney transplant earlier this week. As to how it will effect him in the long run only time will tell. But he is doing quite well at the moment, and he's far more optimistic than usual...might be just the shot at getting healthy.

I dont think this is the case. it is more logical that someone who has had a transplant behaves diffrently as the body goes through a tramatic change

I don't believe in this. I believe we all have souls/spirits but when our physical body dies our souls/spirits move on to another new born being. Therefore someone who gets a transplant is just getting a physical piece of another persons being, which has no personality in it to be taken

I know someone that had a blood transfusion and after that her personility changed. she likes foods now that she did not like before. So i do think it is possible

to me i think the soul is every part of the body. I guess taking on some one personalty woulnt ubnormal

I tend to agree with Nightgame and Beshadowed nice urban legend though indeed where is the soul housed in what part of our fragile human bodies does the soul sit?

My personal beliefs are these the soul is a part of every bit of you it resides in every fiber of your being. It can not be transferred though threw to the next person interesting idea though.

Mikhail

I am curious if there have been "reports" of blood transfusion recipients having the same identity crisis. Considering that blood is our basic life line and does touch every inch of our bodies...Hmmm. Interesting.

All things are possible. I do not turn away any idea. I would like to see more research on something like this. The brain is the seat of emotions and things like personality. That is why cardiologists who study the heart do not treat someone for a personality disorder or any other mental illness.

People's belongings sometimes pick up their emotions. It makes sense that their organs would pick up their essence, or rather hold some of their essence.
Why do you think people in the ancient ages devoured their dead family's organs? To hold their wisdom inside of them, to let some part of them live on.

our bodies attune to our vibration. our organs have a memory. our cells retain vibrational memory. so if parts get transplanted the resipient may take on the same vibration or attunement, and behaviors.

I can see a transplant patient taking on some traits of the donor but at the same time it is hard to see just how much of the personality and for how long the patient will get the traits. It is a very thought laden question for all to think about. Carpe Noctem

I have heard that is has happed before...but usually it is just minor...like change in tastes(food and drink wise).....the most extreme change I have heard of is when a man got his heart transplanted he had a change in who he loved and they said it was because of the new heart

I don't believe any of that personality being transfered into the patient.
Our soul is not within our flesh. It's an evergy.

Transplants may have nothing to do with the soul of the transplanted organ, but with the cells. Each cell in your body has the same memory of the first cell you started out as. That applies to your organs and organs of other people. Whether or not those cells have a soul or memory of a soul is questionable. Foreign cells are introduced when a transplant is performed. Those cells are either accepted and assimilated or rejected.

I think the role of the soul is very overplayed. It's just a way to show that you're expressing emotions. I think that the people that are gaining the personality traits of their donors are just proving how stron the mind and the checmicals in the body are.

I have never felt that one body part or another contains your soul. A person who recieves a transplant should be able to resume their daily lives after recovery and any changes are from them and not the part.

I think in some cases we do get part of them in us in one case i heard about someone who got someones eyes started seeing stuff like visions of some sort i dont remember exactly where i heard it it must of been on a documentry. But i do believe we get who ever's body part's soul to or atleast in a sense.

When one thinks about it, I see it as a possibility.

For instance, a person who has a brain transplant. As most know, we only use about 10% of our brains, and usually a person is categorized by which side the predominately use (Right or Left). Now if a person who primarily uses the Right side of the brain (characteristics show the right side is more random, intuitive, subjective) is given the brain of a person who primarily uses the Left (Logical, Rational, Objective), I think that it is very possible that the person receiving the transplant would experience changes.

i believe that the soul is conected to every part of you i have a friend who had eye transplants and every once and awhile usually when she is trying to meditate she has visions that just do not make any sense to here of someones last vission before they died and it is the same vision everytime she sees it

to me the soul departs the body and heads off to were ever it shall go long before any parts are removed so I don't belive that it's possable.

I was watching something on it once, this guy had had a heart transplant and soon after started to write poetry, Haha, it was quite ironic considering he hates literiture. (Excuse spelling)
It makes me beleive that the body is the soul, Or...part of the soul atleast. Excellent subject :)

I believe that you cannot "exchange or share" souls. Because by definition the soul is in fact the human body and not some spirit. A single soul meaning a single person. So even if you were to receive a transplant, you would not take on the past users personality or traits. The only thing that might have affect is the mental and physical trauma the patient went through so it might mess up the persons intellect. Also if the patient knows of the donors past, then subconsciously they could take on that persons personality, because in the end it's all psychological.

well, a lot of religions believe that you make a sort of agreement before entering this life, or your life is a continuation of your previous lives lived...so you "know" you're coming here; that's why the soul attaches itself to the receptacle, meaning body.

the thing is folks, this is not just a wild theory, a hypothetical question, or even an urban myth - it is a documented fact. this has been recorded many times. it doesn't happen everytime, and it is not usually a complete personality exchange - just certain traits or habits. this is a bit like when some scientist allegedly claimed that it is impossible for a bumble bee to fly. they clearly do fly, so pointing out that it is impossible is rather a pointless exercise.

Where is it documented?

Well I believe it can happen and agree with a previous post that our soul is in ever fibre of our being right down to our dna.

And if someone has a strong spirit and powerful spirit that some of the spirit can merge with yours and for a time can take over things for a bit.

It could also be a mental thing, if you know who your donor was and you believed strongly enough that their personality has merged with yours it will happen.

Honestly, I am under the belief that our genetics (for the most part) do not dictate our personality. I believe the genetics could play an important role in our overall brain behavior, but the personilty is determined by our environment and experiences...that is what will form the true synaptic connections in the brain. And of course, the major connections are established in early childhood, though continue throughout adulthood.

I believe the soul is truly a physically intagible entity that is uniquely distinct from our physical body. However, the body requires the soul to survive, so to speak. A soulless body is a dead body, in a metaphorical sense. I am under the impression that a brain dead body is a body without a soul (the soul has passed on to another plain of existence...heaven for those who believe).

Do I think we can transfer a part of our soul via transplantation? I'm gonna go with no. I really don't think personality is linked to body parts. If it is, then we would see more of these supposed personality traits showing up even in people who get blood donations.

There are many stupid people and scientists out there that will make a claim just to get in the papers. I have seen many research-based claims that seemed true be thrown out after investigation.

This is a subject that hits close to home, as I have End Stage Renal Disease and will have to have a transplant in the future. I have heard from lots of ppl that have had transplants that say afterward they suddenly have traits or quirks that they didn't have before. I believe that every part of your body has your "stamp" on it. When you have a part of someone else put into your body their stamp integrates into your body, hence traits that was theirs are now yours. This has be discussed extensively in my ESRD email discussion list. I for one am not interested in transplants because of this and because you do not know what kind of energy the person put off, especially since I am a Wiccan follower I have to be sure of positive energy and that is impossible in transplants.

I don't believe that the transplants have anything to do with the changes. When a person gets a " new lease on life" it will often change the way thaey act and think.

Prehaps what some experience is a connection of that persons essence , after all they now carry a part of another.

I do believe though that is might be possible that once the donor died the spirit was so attatched to that specific life force that they hovered around it's body knowing they were going to be used to help someone else and could have in turn thought they were meant to inhabit that said person recieving their last hosts donation.

but if that were the case the spirit inhabiting the Doni (sp) would have to move out wich I don't believe happens very often

I could imagin a "connection" , NOT a inhabitation of the essesnce. After all one "gave " of themselves for the benifit of another.

well i believe that the brain is our soul I mean if you are brain dead you no longer exist and you say that people take on traits of their donors leads me to believe that this is true just my opinion.

Maybe the people that take on traits of their donors are just feeling the left over energy of that person. Or perhaps when that donor passed they felt to attached to this world and poured their soul into the part that was donated.....

A transplant of any organ is use to one way of living. Once that is changed that effects the organ greatly. It is possible the an organ can send messages to brain that it needs for more of this or less of that. I could see why someone could pick up a donors trait.

i agree taht it does happen and it is possible taht teh spirit derrive from another source!

The only person I knew to have had a transplant was my grandpa. He got a 29 year old's liver. Hard to say if he took on any traits as he was always very young spirited. He never acted any differently.

I don't know what to think about this....
interesting to think about though!

I do believe there is a possibility of some traits being picked up by the recipient of an organ transplant. I think this more the result of the energy contained within the organ.

The "soul", in my opinion, is not broken up into little pieces and dispersed throughout the body, but is, as others have said, a seperate entity attached to the body as a whole. Therefore, the soul of the deceased donor does not come into play.

The energy associated with a single organ would not have the ability, in my opinion, to impose personality traits or prefeances in tastes on an entire person in normal circumstances. However, as Nightgame pointed out, the recipient of the transplanted organ is under extreme stress when the organ is recieved. They are obviously in a state of poor health, or they would not require a transplant. Additionally, the suspense of not knowing if an organ will become available before the disease takes their life is enourmously stressful.

If you take this weakend state and insert the energy of a foreign organ and it's associated energy, it would be possible for the energy of the organ to influence the personality and likes / dislikes of the recipient.

I don't think this would be enough for a major change, but would explain many of the minor alterations in personality and individual tastes.

some people who have heart translants or any kind of transplant show some personality trates that didnt show u before such as food cravings or emotional

people dont know why that is but it happens
because scientists cant prove it does happen they say theres no possible way but tell that to those who have had transplants

i believe that some people might have some part of their personality passed on with given a transplant

I don't think it can actually happen. I think that the records of this type thing happening are bogus and it's all in the patients head. I've gotten a kidney and I don't feel the slightest bit different, thank you very much.

I believe that can happen. It puts me in mind too of ancient cultures that had funeral feasts to devour their dead. You are what you eat? Even though here it's not eating them but recieving part of their bodies in a different fashion.

There is another part of that too. I've heard that they won't give the recipients of transplants information to the family of the donor. They often times would develop feelings that it is their lost loved one. You can't deny that it is a living part of them. If your heart lives on~ do you not also?

It happens..since every cell is infused with a bit of you, it makes sense that when an organ of yours is transplanted into someone else, they take on some of your traits...may be small ones, but that way you live on....nice, that idea.

i beleave that this phenomina is not caused by the soul not the soul it self, but the residual energy that the soul leaves when the body dies

it might cause to take the habits, good ro bad, of the donor but up to the soul itself I am not sure, I do know it does impact the one who recieve, but it wont change him /her, unless the person choose to change.

This is really interesting!
I think that the person will take some traits from the donor if that person listens to their heart but if they don't... Then I don't think that they will take some traits

This topic hits close to home actually. I believe that the "seat" of the soul is not just in the heart or the head, but in all of the body; so its entirely possible that if a part is transplanted it could carry a peice of the soul with it.
Here is where its personal: 2 years ago, my friend's sister was on the kidney transplant list. She had been on dialysis for about 3 years, and her time was running out. Her brother, my friend, was devoted to his sister, and there were like night and day, in personality, in looks, etc. One night he was killed by a drunk driver, and one of his kidneys was donated to his sister. When she came home, I went to see her, she said things that her brother would say, jokes he would make, stuff like that. So I do believ that a peice of the soul could be transplanted with a body part, because I think ive seen it happen.

i agree with celestia, you, in your entirerty, make up you. in that idea, a morsel of your being can be transfered.

its called blood or cell memory

blood memorys.

but they will never have part of the other persons soul

I have always looked at the human body as a store of information, each day no matter what we do it effects each part of the body in some way, I think it is possible for our organs/tissues store information maybe on how just that experience effected that one organ/tissue. So in a transplant it would be like uploading a portion of a file from another system.

Naaa... I think it's all crap. Seriously. Just because you get some biker guy's heart doesn't mean you're going to love motorcycles.... or if you get a poet's kidney, doesn't mean you'll suddenly love literature.....

Personally I don't believe it. Just because you have someones organ inside of you, it's just a piece of flesh...It doesn't mean you're going to get any of their personality traits.