Genetic Memory101

The concept of genetic memory has been useful in the study of a variety of subjects such as psychology, biology, as well as parapsychology. However, depending upon the subject matter, the term refers to different situations. 

In the psychology discipline, genetic memory is a form of memory that exists in a person since birth even though the individual has yet to obtain any sensory experiences. Instead, the memory has been imprinted into the human’s genome over eons developing further and further until the present.  

Instead, this process, which is not well understood, involves the recording of different memories so as to make the species more able to respond to certain stimuli and situations. Genetic memory, which is used to explain Carl Jung’s postulate of racial memory, is often mistaken for cultural memory. However, they are not equivalent. Cultural memory consists of customs, social myths and artifacts, and it has existed for a much shorter period of time than genetic memory.

The ability of humans to be able to develop and maintain language is a phylogenetic characteristic, meaning that it is generated through the biological functioning of the nervous system, which is present in each human being from their first day of life. However, language is only a small aspect of genetic memory. Language, particularly small units of sound that comprise each language, develop during the process of ontogeny, or development of the organism from fetus to full adult maturity.

Biologists in the 19th century determined that the concept of genetic memory combined with memories of experiences along with genetics and heredity. They, however, believed that the process of genetic memory was Lamarckian. This is now believed to be untrue. In 1881, the new belief was that psychological memory, as well as genetic memory, came from the same source and that the only difference between the two was that psychological memory was affected by consciousness. 

Although these theories, which were generated in the 19th century, have not been wholly discredited by scientists, new theories such as those of Darwin, Gerd B. Muller, and Stuart A. Newman strongly contradict these assertions. Instead, they have led to new thoughts regarding the concept of genetic memory. 

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